Saltburn (B+ or 3/4 stars)
Writer/director/actress Emerald Fennell has established herself as quite the unique filmmaker. Following her daring Promising Young Woman (2020), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay & a nom for Best Director, her latest endeavor, 'Saltburn', puts a incendiary spin on what is mainly a depraved English-set drama about class-conflict. The year is 2006 when we 1st meet Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a 1st-yr. student at Oxford University. He's a smart young man, but an impoverished scholarship recipient; the other aristocratic students come from backgrounds of wealth & privilege. Early on, Oliver becomes obsessively enamored by handsome, popular fellow student & ladies man, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi).
They meet by chance {or is it}, and Felix takes the friendless, reticent Oliver under his wing. Upon learning of Oliver's father's untimely death, Felix invites him to spend the summer at his spectacular ancestral estate in the countryside, Saltburn. Fish-out-of-water Oliver immediately ingratiates himself into Felix's eccentric family, including his quirky father, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), his vain, but witty mother, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), his oversexed, bulimic sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver) & his Oxford friend/'adopted' cousin, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe – also in this yr.'s Gran Turismo).
Despite his lower-class upbringing, the Cattons are enchanted by Oliver -- all except Farleigh {who thinks Oliver is up to something}. Over time, Oliver witnesses the unceremonious removal of one perpetual, odd duck guest, Poor Dear Pamela (Carey Mulligan, highly amusing in this cameo), who quite overstays her welcome. Hell-bent on not letting that happen to him and, observing how the idle rich live, Oliver schemes a plethora of ways to remain at Saltburn ... permanently. A startling chain of events including sex, drugs, rock-&-roll, lunacy, and tragedy ensues.
'Saltburn' will NOT appeal to everyone, but it will definitely be a cult classic. Emerald Fennell's illustration of the British class system here is scintillating to watch. The day of Oliver's birthday party, when Felix takes him for a drive, I guessed where the two would end up and, Fennell takes us {the audience} in a very unnerving direction; because we KNOW that Oliver's manipulating nature could kick into overdrive. The party itself is highfalutin & over-the-top. The decadence of immense wealth is on full display. And yet, all the characters involved are phony; masquerading as one thing when they're really not. To that, Oliver feeds off of the weakness beneath the veneer and strikes them while the proverbial iron is hot.
Barry Keoghan's Oliver has just enough diffidence & boyish charm to pull off the eventual deception he aims to achieve; willing to engage in any kind of seduction with anyone, male or female, to get what he wants. Keoghan was brilliant as Dominic in last yr.'s The Banshees of Inisherin and, he's brilliant here; combining mercurial shyness with surprising menace. His face - fascinating to look at, anyway - contains a myriad of character-revealing tics & emotions that just make you lean forward in your seat. A multitude of his scenes can be described as enticingly disturbing {blood in the moonlight, anyone? Slurping some bath water, anyone?}, and his Oliver's final demented, uninhibited act of defiance in the nude is just a shocker.
Jacob Elordi - who plays Elvis in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla - is excellent as extroverted, can-do-no-wrong 'Golden Boy', Felix. Like, Keoghan, Elordi is mesmerizing to watch, but in a completely different way. Sure, his Felix is good-looking, self-confident & filthy rich, but Elordi brings immense humanity to the role; Felix is a kind soul who is not nearly prepared for the betrayal ahead of him. Carey Mulligan is a hoot as the offbeat 'Poor Dear Pamela'. Richard E. Grant may appear to be the benevolent patriarch, but don't rile him up! Rosamund Pike steals every scene as the quick-witted, yet vapid mother who is never at a loss for biting commentary on anyone. And Alison Oliver rivets as the outwardly confident, inwardly tortured Venetia.
Now, while Emerald Fennell directs the hell out of this film and offers a memorable script ... the storyline is quite familiar; not unlike The Talented Mr. Ripley. I also was letdown by the final 20 minutes. Not only did I find the story's trajectory too disturbing to fully enjoy {it had been WICKEDLY fun up to a point}, but Fennell decides to provide a series of flashbacks to "explain" prior events and, in doing so, creates some plot holes. So despite the fabulous "dance like nobody's watching" final scene, Saltburn's final act is too much of a comedown, for me. Nevertheless, Fennell's questionable choices near the end cannot diminish the endless amazing qualities: its audacity, kinetic energy, unpredictability, visual acuity & the indisputable performances.
They meet by chance {or is it}, and Felix takes the friendless, reticent Oliver under his wing. Upon learning of Oliver's father's untimely death, Felix invites him to spend the summer at his spectacular ancestral estate in the countryside, Saltburn. Fish-out-of-water Oliver immediately ingratiates himself into Felix's eccentric family, including his quirky father, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), his vain, but witty mother, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), his oversexed, bulimic sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver) & his Oxford friend/'adopted' cousin, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe – also in this yr.'s Gran Turismo).
Despite his lower-class upbringing, the Cattons are enchanted by Oliver -- all except Farleigh {who thinks Oliver is up to something}. Over time, Oliver witnesses the unceremonious removal of one perpetual, odd duck guest, Poor Dear Pamela (Carey Mulligan, highly amusing in this cameo), who quite overstays her welcome. Hell-bent on not letting that happen to him and, observing how the idle rich live, Oliver schemes a plethora of ways to remain at Saltburn ... permanently. A startling chain of events including sex, drugs, rock-&-roll, lunacy, and tragedy ensues.
'Saltburn' will NOT appeal to everyone, but it will definitely be a cult classic. Emerald Fennell's illustration of the British class system here is scintillating to watch. The day of Oliver's birthday party, when Felix takes him for a drive, I guessed where the two would end up and, Fennell takes us {the audience} in a very unnerving direction; because we KNOW that Oliver's manipulating nature could kick into overdrive. The party itself is highfalutin & over-the-top. The decadence of immense wealth is on full display. And yet, all the characters involved are phony; masquerading as one thing when they're really not. To that, Oliver feeds off of the weakness beneath the veneer and strikes them while the proverbial iron is hot.
Barry Keoghan's Oliver has just enough diffidence & boyish charm to pull off the eventual deception he aims to achieve; willing to engage in any kind of seduction with anyone, male or female, to get what he wants. Keoghan was brilliant as Dominic in last yr.'s The Banshees of Inisherin and, he's brilliant here; combining mercurial shyness with surprising menace. His face - fascinating to look at, anyway - contains a myriad of character-revealing tics & emotions that just make you lean forward in your seat. A multitude of his scenes can be described as enticingly disturbing {blood in the moonlight, anyone? Slurping some bath water, anyone?}, and his Oliver's final demented, uninhibited act of defiance in the nude is just a shocker.
Jacob Elordi - who plays Elvis in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla - is excellent as extroverted, can-do-no-wrong 'Golden Boy', Felix. Like, Keoghan, Elordi is mesmerizing to watch, but in a completely different way. Sure, his Felix is good-looking, self-confident & filthy rich, but Elordi brings immense humanity to the role; Felix is a kind soul who is not nearly prepared for the betrayal ahead of him. Carey Mulligan is a hoot as the offbeat 'Poor Dear Pamela'. Richard E. Grant may appear to be the benevolent patriarch, but don't rile him up! Rosamund Pike steals every scene as the quick-witted, yet vapid mother who is never at a loss for biting commentary on anyone. And Alison Oliver rivets as the outwardly confident, inwardly tortured Venetia.
Now, while Emerald Fennell directs the hell out of this film and offers a memorable script ... the storyline is quite familiar; not unlike The Talented Mr. Ripley. I also was letdown by the final 20 minutes. Not only did I find the story's trajectory too disturbing to fully enjoy {it had been WICKEDLY fun up to a point}, but Fennell decides to provide a series of flashbacks to "explain" prior events and, in doing so, creates some plot holes. So despite the fabulous "dance like nobody's watching" final scene, Saltburn's final act is too much of a comedown, for me. Nevertheless, Fennell's questionable choices near the end cannot diminish the endless amazing qualities: its audacity, kinetic energy, unpredictability, visual acuity & the indisputable performances.