Saltburn

I left Emerald Fennell's newest film, Saltburn, with a feeling I have rarely felt upon leaving a movie this year: glee. The movie is not particularly deep, and the plot has been done before, but it's also just an outrageous, fucked up, queer, kinky, fun movie with gorgeous visuals, a bitchin' soundtrack, and a wild lead performance by Barry Keoghan. While I left other movies this year (Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and Barbie in particular) feeling like I *should* have enjoyed them more...I actually did enjoy Saltburn. 

The film opens at Oxford University in 2006. Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, a scholarship student who struggles to make friends at the prestigious university. But he captures the attention of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi, best known for his role as Nate in Euphoria)...a very, VERY rich fellow student who is also tall, good-looking, and...nice?! After Oliver lets Felix borrow his bike when Felix gets a flat tire, Felix takes poor, dorky Oliver under his wing...much to the chagrin of Felix's cousin (and full-blown snob), Farleigh (Archie Madekwe). 

But despite Felix's attention, you can kind of tell he's being "rich person nice"--in other words, nice when it suits him and makes him look good. He eventually tires of Oliver and starts ignoring him again. Until Oliver experiences a family tragedy that drives Felix to invite the poor lad to stay the summer at the Catton family estate--Saltburn. Oliver reluctantly agrees and is flabbergasted when he arrives at a Downton Abbey-style castle. Felix introduces him to his family: father James (Richard E. Grant), mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), and cousin Farleigh, whom we've already met and is incredibly annoyed at Oliver's presence. There's also "Poor Dear Pamela" (Carey Mulligan), Elspeth's hot mess friend who has already overstayed her welcome at Saltburn.

Everyone is just so delighted to meet Felix's (poor and kinda ugly) friend. Oliver is like a wide-eyed babe in the woods...or is he? We start to see some machinations behind Oliver's quiet facade. I'll go into full spoilers below after a warning, but for this spoiler free section I'll just point out how good Barry Keoghan (previously in The Banshees of Inisherin and The Killing of a Sacred Deer) is in the role of the kind of mousy guy most people would underestimate. I was very impressed with Keoghan in Banshees, but now I am a full-on Keoghan stan...with maybe a little crush on him? 

The back-half of Saltburn gets wilder and wilder. The film's queer undertones become pansexual overtones as Oliver, er, ingratiates himself into the family. I found Saltburn to be wonderfully campy and sinister in the best possible way...but the movie ain't that deep. This is Fennell's "eat the rich" movie, and it's not as insightful as some of the other films in that genre. But that's ok. Saltburn is what it is...a nasty little piece of work that is a hell of a good time.

Grade: B+

SPOILERS BELOW!!

It becomes clear pretty quickly that Oliver is manipulative. He starts out by flattering Rosamund Pike's character, Elspeth, by listening to her gossip about the people she claims to care about and agreeing and "yes and-ing" her comments--and by telling her she's "fucking beautiful". 

But it gets even more interesting when Oliver seduces Felix's sister, Venetia, through a little psychological domination and some good, old-fashioned pussy-eating...in the garden at night, right outside cousin Farleigh's window. When Farleigh snitches to Felix and Felix confronts Oliver, Oliver laughs and says "You believe him? Venetia and me?!", leaning into Felix's pre-conceived notion that Oliver is a harmless dork. 

Meanwhile, Oliver is literally drinking Felix's bathwater...I'm not kidding. In a scene that manages to be both disgusting and sensual, Oliver observes Felix masturbate in a bathtub and, when Felix leaves the bathroom, licks up the water as it drains. I'm guessing this scene was inspired by the scene in The Talented Mr. Ripley where Matt Damon watches Jude Law in the bathtub...but like, taken about 10 notches too far.

Keoghan is really good at playing the sociopathic, bisexual seducer. He wants to be part of the Catton family and he'll fuck the entire family to weasel his way in. But, just like with Tom Ripley, Oliver's machinations don't stop at fucking. When Felix discovers that Oliver's backstory--a poor only child whose mom is an addict and whose father recently died--is complete bullshit (Oliver is a from a middle class family with sisters and his parents are alive and well)...he tells Oliver that he will soon be expelled from Saltburn. This is where Oliver becomes very, very dangerous.

It's not difficult to see where this is all heading, and it's also very unrealistic, but...yeah, Oliver kills the entire Catton family and ends up gaining ownership of Saltburn. It happens over a period of years. First, he poisons Felix during the last big party at Saltburn (which is, in fact, Oliver's birthday party). Then he manipulates Venetia into killing herself. After James pays him to leave Saltburn (because his wife, Elspeth, doesn't want Oliver to leave in the wake of losing both of her children), Ollie plays it cool for a few years until he sees in the newspaper that James is dead (did he somehow kill James? Probably). Finally, he reunites with Elspeth, who leaves him the manor....and then mysteriously becomes gravely ill. Once all the Cattons are dispatched of, Oliver dances around Saltburn totally naked--his entire plan, from the moment he put a tack in Felix's bike tire to the moment he rips out Elspeth's life support tube--finally paying off in a big way. Yes, it's totally ridiculous. But is it any more ridiculous than the plot of Parasite? Not really...it's just a lot less classy than Bong Joon-ho's eat the rich movie. 

Overall, Saltburn was one of my most enjoyed movies so far this year (alongside Sanctuary and Talk to Me). I'm a sucker for nasty, pretty movies and this one has both nastiness and prettiness in spades. It's not dignified like Killers of the Flower Moon...but dignity is really overrated.

Grade: B+