“Saltburn” (2023)
Summertime with the rich and vacuous.
After seeing the trailer for director Emerald Fennell’s third cinematic feature repeatedly on my recent trips to my local picture house I’d convinced myself I would thoroughly hate this film and much like the conflicted, this year’s “toy” and fish out of water central character here, I despised every character in a film I loved but, like our central character once more, I hated every single one of the vacuous and vapid other brilliantly realised characters around him. Except one. But, everyone loves Felix! So much so that everyone wants to be around the young man from the mega moneyed family with a Knight of the Realm for a father and who lives in a “castle” called “Saltburn” and one young infatuated man in particular has to be in his orbit, has to radiate from the sunshine that he brings and so much so, it consumes both him and Felix whole.
That young man, a painfully shy and awkward outsider in his first year at Oxford University in 2006 is Oliver. On the outside looking in to a world far removed from his more humble roots in Prescot near Liverpool, Oliver is soon enchanted by the intoxicating nature of life within one of England’s premier universities and although decried by nearly everyone for his outsider status, a poor “scholarship” boy dressed in clothes from “Oxfam”, he seeks companionship and friendship and finds this, and so much more, in the high society presence of Felix. Polar opposites from the very opposite and extreme ends of the societal spectrum, Felix seemingly has everything: money, prestige and fawning young ladies for his every whim, whilst Oliver has arrived at Oxford University from an abusive, self destructive family and desperately wants to be accepted rather than shunned and sneered at. All except for Felix who, as his sister Venetia immediately remarks, sees Oliver as “real” rather than the entitled and superficial he surrounds himself with and whilst everyone in this “ghastly” circle of young people (“ghastly” is a word oft used throughout the film) warn Oliver that Felix will soon drop him, dispense with him, that he’s just this summer’s “toy” and pet project, infatuation soon turns to love though “not in love”, but a love and appreciation for the young man at the other end of a horribly twisted societal spectrum.
Spoilers aside, and boy could I break my own strict rule here and spoil this film royally, but there’s a twist I didn’t see coming that sees the film veer wildly from an already rocky, Gothic and blackly comedic road that also sees two scenes that when seen you’ll never forget (or wish to forget in a hurry depending on your sensibilities) and the entire film is wrapped up in frenetic cuts and flashbacks in the first minute after the opening credits but you’ll only truly appreciate come the film’s crunching denouement and the opening strains of “Murder on the Dance Floor”.
Which in conclusion brings us to the musical choices included here and brilliantly so as it mixes orchestral hymns of the past with more contemporary tracks from Arcade Fire, MGMT, The Killers and a horribly awkward karaoke rendition of the Pet Shop Boys “Rent” and stand out performances of repugnant characters that are not so much unlikeable as thoroughly detestable. Only Felix (a superb Jacob Elordi) and sister Venetia (a heart broken performance from Alison Oliver) break from a roll call of stellar character portrayals of utterly heartless and empty entitled human beings with permanent smiles to mask their horrible underbellies. Richard E Grant excels as “Sir James Catton” married to “Elspeth Catton” for whom Rosamund Pike realises for the cinematic screen in customary dead eyed superficiality. Carey Mulligan is almost unrecognisable as “Poor Dear Pamela”, Reece Shearsmith is brilliantly unlikeable as “Professor Ware” but no-one holds a stately home candle to the ghastly (that word again) and desperate, backstabbing portrayal of “Farleigh” by Archie Madekwe.
All of these portrayals are in support of the film’s stand out star performance from Barry Keoghan who has yet again followed up his superb screen outings in the Yorgos Lanthimos directed “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”, Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” and more recently the excellent Martin McDonagh deeply black comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” with another performance of watchful poise, yearning, desperation and so much more spoilers will not allow for description. It was the performance I hoped it would be from the oft seen trailers and the 31 year old from Dublin has a long and glittering cinematic career ahead of him.
I hated nearly every single one of the characters here in a film I pre-judged as knowing in my cinematic heart I would hate but loved so much that as soon as “Murder on the Dance Floor” ended mid-way through the end credits, I immediately started watching this highly recommended film all over again.
Thanks for reading. For a decade and more of spoiler free reviews contained within 7 volumes of pure cinematic joy, please do take a peek at the links in the middle of this article. Alternatively, here are my 3 most recently published spoiler free film reviews from this year:
