Saltburn

In the past year or so, I’ve become a big Barry Keoghan fan. Not quite to the level of “binge all his films”, but if he’s in it, it’s at least worth checking out. As for many people I’m sure, it began with The Banshees of Inisherin, although I technically first noticed him in his minor role in The Green Knight the year before. I was very impressed by how his character had his whole own plot running through the movie which added to the thematic elements without really calling attention to itself, and the manner in which he was able to convey the layered reality his character inhabited. It’s been true of every movie I’ve seen him in thus far, although few reach the heights of the terrifying surreality of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which is an absolute masterclass.

My point is simply that I was always going to see this movie, so I avoided the trailer. I knew nothing about the plot, nor the other actors, nor the director. Which led to me being repeatedly floored to recognize so many performers. Although nothing was more shocking than discovering the next day that this is writer/director Emerald Fennell’s second film, following 2020’s Promising Young Woman, a film I greatly enjoyed despite some misgivings. Had I known that, my excitement for this may have been through the roof, instead of the very respectable 11/10 where it was.

In 2006, Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is a misfit freshman at Oxford University, where he’s looked down upon as a scholarship recipient amongst a sea of old-money riches. He seems to have a somewhat troubled past of which we get occasional glimpses to help explain what his deal is. He’s befriended by another social outcast in Michael (Ewan Mitchell), but all the while is pining after womanizer Felix (Jacob Elordi). He just wants to be enveloped in that world he cannot begin to understand. So when he gets the chance to lend Felix a hand and parlay that into friendship, he plays his cards carefully, and they become damn near inseparable.

But see, this is where my ignorance of anything about the film really paid off.

I had thought we were settling in for a drama about repressed homosexuality and the complicated ways it interacts with the class divide as well as social politics. Only, the whole time, there’s just something unsettling right below the surface. It’s the way Oliver is treated, the way the camera looks at him locked out of the halls of (social) power, and the way it causes him to pull away from the world. So there was a part of me that sensed a turn was coming, although I had little idea what shape that would take.

It comes when Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s estate for the summer. We meet a whole new cast of characters. In addition to Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), Oliver’s classmate and Felix’s cousin, we spend a lot of time with his mother (Rosamund Pike), father (Richard E. Grant), and sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). Once again, everything’s just a little bit off. It’s stray comments about last year’s boy. It’s the traditions which are alien to Oliver, such as dressing black tie for dinner every night. And it’s the way mom and dad both seem to be aloof and just unaware enough that make the gears start to turn about what sinister secrets are held in this mansion.

In one sense, I was right. The themes of repressed homosexuality and class divide reverberate through the film. Oliver’s obsession only deepens, and seems to drive all his decisions and actions while at Saltburn, leading to some incredibly tense and upsetting scenes. He clashes with Farleigh, who actually doesn’t come from money himself, and is only staying here since his mother’s fallen on hard times. No one trusts each other, people are acting strange, and we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

To be a little fair, this is a movie which does deal somewhat in shock. It’s upsetting and confounding and unsettling throughout its runtime. But all of those moments play into the characters or the events, or at minimum serve to keep you off balance. While Oliver settles into Saltburn, we’re never allowed to. We’re too busy trying to read whatever we can into everyone’s facial expressions and behaviors. And each new event forces us to reevaluate what we thought we knew.

As much as I enjoyed the score generally, I was most taken with the needle drops. As the movie takes place in the mid-2000s, it’s full of a particular breed of pop rock which I adore. Phoenix, MGMT, The Killers, and the like. I found myself bopping my head and lip syncing along in the theater. Even the ones I was unfamiliar with were excellent. They really helped to set the film in its time period, as it’s a genre which has fallen out of favor, despite never going away.

And the cinematography! Fantastic. Not only the sweeping shots of the estate and the labyrinth on its grounds, but the individual shots both there and at Oxford. All of it does an excellent job framing the story, but there are a couple shots in particular which stood out to me as particularly interesting and thematic and, if not unique, at least inspired. The opening shot is a couple minute tracking shot from behind Keoghan’s head as he walks onto campus. The end of the film mirrors that shot in a super powerful and entertaining way that I absolutely loved.

The performances were killer. Keoghan continues to demonstrate why he’s amongst my favorite actors. The complexity of the emotional portrayals he lands is just unreal, while remaining super entertaining and fun. It was great to see Rosamund Pike get to play something other than cold and calculating, and she does a wonderful job. Alison Oliver is not an actress I’m familiar with, but she perfectly captures the erraticness of a character in a spiral. This movie more than Priscilla helped me understand the appeal of Jacob Elordi, as he pulls off not only extremely handsome but also incredibly natural and relaxed. Even Archie Madekwe comes out looking good. I still didn’t love him, but it’s miles better than his starring role earlier in the year in Gran Turismo, despite this being filmed first.

The film’s biggest weakness is not quite trusting its audience. Because as we progress through the plot, certain details and oddities build up, and we slowly piece together exactly what’s happening. There are clues early on, so maybe you peg it early, but they all definitely fall into place by the end. Thus, it’s kind of frustrating when Emerald Fennell feels the need to spell it all out for us and remove any ambiguity. It removes some of the impact by making everything explicit instead of allowing us to connect the dots and imagine. Telling us the solution invites us to poke holes in it, which weakens the foundation.

But all in all, this is a fantastic film, engaging and exhilarating from the very first shot. Fennell continues to impress, even if she’s yet to reach perfection. Her career is young, and consists of two stellar features at the moment. What more could you ask for? Keep an eye on Fennell, as I’ve not doubt her work will continue to light up the screen.