Movie Review : Saltburn (2023)
I never understood what it meant to be rich until I've met a rich person. Not someone who gets by comfortably. Not someone who's won the lottery and makes a big show of splurging their earnings away. I'm talking old money fucks, born in privilege and without any idea of what any of it means. They're a different breed and I didn’t think people like this existed until I met them. Fortunately for us working class people, there's a new Emerald Fennell movie that explores the otherness of social classes.
It's called Saltburn and it's pretty good.
Saltburn tells the story of Oliver Quick (the always stellar Barry Keoghan), a scholarship student at Oxford who's immediately ostracized by rich kids for not being one of them. His luck turns when he meets Felix Catton (the equally stellar Jacob Elordi), a wealthy and ambiguous young man who's immediately drawn to him. After learning Oliver's tragic story, Felix invites Olivier to his family estate of Saltburn for the summer. It's all great, except that no one wants him there and Oliver won't leave.
Social Status As An Identity
Saltburn isn't quite "fuck the rich" porn like, let's say Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness or The Menu, except it kind of is? It's one of the good movies I've seen that explores the unreality of social classes. Oliver is a nerdy, but street smart kid from Merseyside with dreams of being royalty and Felix is one of the old money fucks who lives in a world where he never had to exist alongside someone less wealthy than him. They only exist to serve a precise purpose is one another's journey.
Felix is a sexual and financial fantasy to Oliver and Oliver is a sexual and existential fantasy to Felix. One needs the other to ascend to a better life and the other needs him to give purpose to his. Felix and Oliver live in a completely tone deaf symbiosis that everyone seems to notice but them. They don't like each other for who they are, but for what they represent. It is best exemplified through gorgeously crafted scenes where they devour one another with their eyes. They're not seeing, they're dreaming one another.
That said, Emerald Fennell also shows her flair for symbolism and visual allegory in Saltburn. There's a short, but important scene at the beginning where Oliver is trying to figure his way out of a replica of the lawn maze in Saltburn's yard and gets interrupted by the butler, hinting that he doesn't even have a right to be there. There's another scene after Felix learns one of Oliver's inconvenient secrets where Oliver is disguised as a deer and Felix as an angel that was on the nose, but quite appropriate.
Saltburn is often gorgeous and never afraid to be surreal.
But is it good?
Saltburn is a solid movie, to be honest. It's a more accessible version of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema and Takashi Miike's Visitor Q (yeah, these movies are intense). Other critics have drawn parallels to The Talented Mr. Ripley, which isn't false at all either. Without spoiling anything, I'm sure you understand what kind of film you're dealing with based on these comparisons. Halfway between a sophisticated thriller and a dark comedy, it will try its darnedest to make you squirm and will most likely do.
What I liked best is the Britishness of it. Earlier this week, I reviewed Todd Haynes' May December and claimed it drowned in hand wringing and southern politeness. Saltburn is a great counterexample of a sophisticated, graceful film that is also full of nuances and that spectacularly taps in to core of its argument without flinching. The character never break their britishness even as the world starts unraveling around them and unraveling, it does. That last hour is a glorious trip into the depths of hell.
*
How good is Saltburn actually? It might not quite be a masterpiece and it WILL offend your aunt Bonnie, but it has soul and grit to spare. Given that it is transported by the chemistry between Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi (and it's really not as good whenever they don't share the screen), it sometimes feel a little too broad for what it's trying to do. Saltburn seldom loses itself in the multilayered social life of wealthy brits, but it has two great lead characters and boldness that should be celebrated.
