Saltburn (2023) – Review

Despite having enough of an English rose feel about her to portray Camilla Parker Bowles in Netflix’s The Crown, writer, director and actor Emerald Fennall sure knows how to land her blows with maximum impact. Her debut feature, the stunningly bleak and powerfully confrontational Promising Young Woman, ruffled plenty of feathers upon release back in 2020, but with her second film, she now seems to want to leave said feathers unruffled in favour of plucking them out entirely.
The film in question is the infamous Saltburn, the jaw dropping movie about the nature of wealth, power and the class divide that’s launched endless memes and posts on various platforms concerning its frank and debauched sexual content. Is it as stunning as reports would have you believe – well, it’s time to throw open the gates of the titular estate and dive right in…

It’s 2006 and professional outcast Oliver stumbles around the bottom of the social hierarchy at Oxford University until a chance act of kindness puts him in the crosshairs of the wealthy and wildly popular Felix Catton. After sharing the tragic story of a youth spent with parents twisted by substance abuse, mental health issues and the recent death of his father, Oliver and Felix become fast friends as the wealthier of the two takes the other under his privileged wing and invites him back to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s palatial country house.
Once he gets used to the sheer size of the place and the frankly terrifying butler, Oliver finds himself welcomed in by the exceedingly eccentric Cattons who is made up of scatty patriarch Sir James, enthusiastic gossip Lady Elspeth and her permanently confused friend Pamela and Felix’s sister Venetia; however, he is treated with a suspicious eye by American cousin, Farleigh, who constantly tries to embarrass the young student every chance he gets.
As the summer wears on, Oliver gradually integrates himself into the family, enjoying basking in the sun and endless parties, but whenever the spotlight is off him, we get to see that Oliver isn’t quite as timid as he makes out. In fact, he seems to have a very intense fixation on Felix that goes far beyond long lingering looks while standing in doorways – certainly, Oliver’s treatment of Felix’s leftover bathwater is definitely something to write home about – and soon his subtle influence spreads to the promiscuous Venetia too after an eyebrow raising sexual encounter.
Soon questions of people’s true intentions are zipping around like crazy as obsession and jealousy rear their twin heads – but the main query seems to be: who is truly feeding off who here?

So, the first thing that leaps out at you about Saltburn, obviously, is some infamous sexual content that gleefully pushes buttons while taking aim at certain taboos with the force of a 12 gauge shotgun. The thing is, while writer/director Fennall has all the restraint of Ken Russell, the way she deploys her showstopping acts of debauchery shows a mischievous streak of jet black comedy that few would be brave enough to try. However, if you can restrain the rather boring need to be shocked or offended, Saltburn is frequently hilarious in the most spiteful and vicious of ways. But when you’re not recoiling at the sight of Oliver watching Felix masturbate in the bath and then sneaking in later to enjoy a bathwater cocktail with a semen chaser, you’ll find a certain satisfaction witnessing Oliver burrow his way into the bosom of the Cattons like some sort of gaslighting parasite.
The social commentary is fairly rudimentary, painting the wealthy as an alpha species whose guard is never up simply because they don’t believe they have any predators, but it’s the performances (arm in arm with the complexity of the plot and those shock moments) that makes Saltburn really sear the brain.
Fast emerging as one of the most versatile actors around, Barry Keoghan emerges from Marvel ensembles, Joker cameos and convincingly playing a tragic village idiot in The Banshees Of Insisherin to play the the duplicitous Oliver with a wry twinkle in his eye and as the actor flits between his more innocent persona and his more commanding, conniving mode. Better yet, Fennall doesn’t make his plot run smoothly and the constant roadblocks in his path help to keep you guessing about whose side you’re actually on. Yes, the Cattons are a vapid, ignorant family with more money and titles then actual sense, but the lengths Olvier goes to to maintain his invisible stranglehold constantly (and amusingly) refuses to be easy to cheer on.

Jacob Elordi, Archie Madekwe and Alison Oliver are appropriately gorgeous and pampered as the younger generation who dwell at the titular estate, but it’s the elders who truly personify how far removed the family are from real life with Rosamund Pike putting in a tour de force performance as the catastrophically self-obsessed Elsbeth who nets all the best lines. “She’d do anything for attention.” she dismissively snorts when passing on the news of a friend’s suicide and frequently declaring personal views such as “I was a lesbian for a while, you know, but it was all a bit too wet for me in the end. Men are so lovely and dry.” at the drop of a hat, she’s frequently magnificently funny and builds up an entertaining rapport with a cameoing Carey Mulligan who almost matches her with her mentally checked out friend. In fact, a brief back and forth between Elsbeth and Oliver concerning the font on a headstone (Times New Roman, in case you were wondering) may actually be one of the best punchlines of the fucking decade.
However, for better or worse, it’s those shock moments that get the headlines and whether it’s Keogan eagerly picking a certain time of the month to perform oral sex, indulging in semi-frequent bouts of full frontal nudity, or showing of some highly unorthodox grave-side grief, the actor is utterly fearless in his quest to not only eat the rich, but to crap them out in his wake.

Utterly loaded with stunning twists and turns to go with its constantly surprising content, Fennell has created yet another challenging dark comedy that provides just as many laughs as it does gasps of disbelief to ensure that Saltburn is Skins meets The Talented Mr. Ripley – but with added bathwater slurping… I cant wait to see what Fennell cooks up next.
Riches be crazy, yo.

🌟🌟🌟🌟