Coming off the heels of a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Promising Young Woman, writer/director Emerald Fennell had all eyes on her next project. Enter Saltburn, Fennell’s sophomore feature film, and a significant step-up for the filmmaker in terms of on-screen skills. Fennell once again examines power dynamics through the lens of her characters, and isn’t afraid to warp them into twisted, fascinating individuals that we can’t help but stare at. It also helps that the lead character of the film, Oliver Quick, is played by the always excellent Barry Keoghan. But with this performance, Keoghan channels something he hasn’t tapped into since Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It’s clear that within each passing glance he gives, there’s a multitude of emotions and ideas all fighting to explode out of the frame. It’s a deeply committed performance, and in a just world, would rightfully get an Oscar nomination. Still, this film extends far beyond Oliver’s small world-view, and that can be felt as soon as the audience is also introduced to the titular mansion in which the final two-thirds of Saltburn takes place.
We first meet Oliver by way of a fragmented voiceover narration. In retrospect, it’s a brilliant way to start the film. In one fell swoop, Fennell is able to ambush her audience with imagery that’s beautifully composed, yet frighteningly delivered. Its rapid-fire cutting and disjointed sequencing makes for an introduction that’s as alluring as it is off-putting. By the time we actually meet Oliver walking through Oxford, it’s already too late to escape. Fennell has catapulted us back to 2006, and it’s in this first act where she properly sets the stage. With all that entails the first weeks of college, we too become mystified by the massive groups that seem to have already formed lifelong bonds within minutes. Oliver finds himself alone in his dorm room, peering through shadowy curtains and out of darkness into the light. And the first thing he sees? It’s Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), described by Fennell as the “Ultimate Golden Boy.” Surrounded by students that are basically gawking and bordering on worship, to cut back to Oliver hidden in the darkness of his room, details two essential elements about the film and Fennell as a filmmaker. Firstly, her understanding and manipulation of the most fundamental of shot composition works wonders. The way her and cinematographer Linus Sandgren use both simple and bombastic color and lighting in this film is extraordinary. For example, a shocking scene in the third act becomes a twisted tragedy as the room is bathed in an eerie, otherworldly red glow. But secondly, the crux of the film lies within Oliver’s first look at Felix. It’s in that look that Fennell captures a powerful allure which propels the rest of her film. While many films in recent years have taken a full-on dramatic or satirical approach to the concept of “Eating the Rich,” Saltburn goes about it in a completely different manner; and the film is all the more compelling for it.
On a very base level, Saltburn uses the allure of wanting what we don’t have to its benefit. It’s something that basically every single person has faced at some point in their lives. Yet smartly, Fennell wraps this allure around something perhaps even more powerful than a simple want for objects or wealth. Oliver may want a big house and the ability to buy drinks at a whim considering his past home life, but more than anything, he doesn’t want to be alone anymore. The shocking depths of loneliness present in the early moments of the film are particularly telling, and it’s abundantly clear why Fennell decided to open her film in the very beginning of Oliver’s college tenure. Upon meeting another deeply lonely student during a meal, the student basically snaps and causes a scene. It’s not out of a necessity to shock the audience from Fennell’s perspective, but instead, to blatantly detail how feeling the need to prove one’s worth may be more powerful than ever during such a scary time in one’s life. Of course, it works as a comedic moment, of which this film has many. But fundamentally, this film is a compelling tragedy we can’t take our eyes off of.
Upon a chance encounter, Oliver and Felix end up meeting, and the film rapidly takes off. In a blurry montage the way those early months of college particularly feel, Felix’s approval and welcoming of Oliver to his friend group is worth the pain of waking up hungover and wiped out. Keoghan gives the audience a smile through groggy eyes that shows he’s more than content… he’s fulfilled. As the semester draws to a close, Oliver is invited to Felix’s family manor, Saltburn, for as long as he’d like. It’s in this dazzling, regal location that the remainder of the film takes place, and what a time it appears to be. Felix’s parents (a brilliant Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant) are extravagance personified, surrounded by pieces that almost certainly belong in a museum. The kind gesture given to Oliver is hinted at being a bit more devious than one may imagine, but Oliver also isn’t as simple as his story might lead us to believe. In a handful of incredibly brash ways, Fennell’s script depicts the ways in which even being surrounded by insurmountable weather can warp us. Even in the face of this unsubtle script however, there’s enough imagery to leave the audience shocked and awestruck. In large part due to the needle drops and regal location, each decision made by the guests at Saltburn are wildly exciting. As is the case with any film about wealth however, there’s plenty hidden beneath the surface. The hidden elements of Saltburn, those of which will not be spoiled here, are what make Fennell’s film such a cinematic treat.
MGM & Amazon Studios will release Saltburn in select theaters November 17, 2023 and in theaters everywhere November 22, 2023.