Emerald Fennell's excoriating follow up to Promising Young Woman skewers class and privilege with louche insouciance. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, a needy, slightly pathetic scholarship student and he's in stellar form. As a 'Johhny-no-mates' at Oxford University, an opportunity arises to ingratiate himself with the cool folks on campus, led by Felix (a surprisingly excellent Jacob Elordi).
The humour in this is just one of many drawcards. It's all played with a rigidly straight bat and there's an uneasy sting to it. The first inkling of this is a perfect outburst at a common room dinner - not so crucial in the wash up, but a great indicator of things to come.
Oliver's underprivileged family situation presses Felix to invite him home to his parents' estate for the summer, the evocatively named, Saltburn. Here is where things begin to ramp up. Aside from the folks, Sir James and Elspeth (played with pitch perfect timing by Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike), we also meet Felix's sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver) and are reintroduced to cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), who is part of the Uni crowd. There's also creepy manservant, Duncan (Paul Rhys), who judges imperiously, and Poor Dear Pamela (Carey Mulligan), a possibly deluded 'friend' of the family. Nobody misses a beat, the casting is brilliant.
There have been a number of films of late critiquing the entitlement of the upper classes. The subversive distinction here is that we are led to feel a kind of sympathy for the entitled Catton family, sort of like how some people feel about the Windsors. But the message is almost a threat: "Just keep this shit up, richies, and you'll see what'll happen." Balancing audience sympathies is the gamble, and Fennell runs a fine line, but she pulls it off with aplomb, right down to the piss-take final musical flourish.
There are a couple of wince-inducing moments in Saltburn - some really discomfiting stuff. I won't go into detail here but there might be some recurring images of bath plugholes for a while. Mostly though, it's the dark humour that resonates. Some of the dialogue is sublime, whether it's Elspeth bragging about knowing the Britpop crew or Sir James delighting in wearing his suit of armour, there are some absolute pages of gold here. There is also a great analogy about a moth, fluttering at the window, attracted to the shiny things, trying to get in; as opposed to a spider, skulking about, weaving its web.
Linus Sandgren (No Time to Die, Babylon, La La Land) deserves a heap of credit - his cinematography is stunning. There are plenty of languidly trippy visuals but there's one long shot of human silhouettes down a misty, tree-lined lane that is fucking stupendous. And the lunch table scene where Sir James has a raging rant about finishing the pie is shot through red with a grief and desperation that makes it the filmic peak of 2023 for me.
This won't necessarily be for everyone but I think it's a gem. Saltburn is in cinemas around the country now.
See also:
I wonder if Fennell has seen Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem (1968). I haven't (so can't recommend) but she seems to have taken some cues from it. There's a touch of Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr Ripley - and its predecessor, Rene Clement's Plein Soleil (1960), as well as Joe Wright's Atonement (2007), but the vibes are more like Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013).
(Film stills and trailer ©Warner Bros, 2023)
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