Saltburn review

In this Saltburn review, we will share our opinion about this movie. Furthermore, we’ll reveal to you the things that we liked and the things that we didn’t. So, if you’d like to know more, please stay with us.

©MGM- Amazon Studios

Many of us have been expecting this Saltburn for a long time. And now that it is available on Amazon Prime, we have watched it and decided to write the Saltburn review.

What’s Saltburn about?

In writer-director Emerald Fennell’s new movie, things happen, often inexplicably, as gorgeously shot and increasingly hostile scenes criticizing England’s wealthy and grimy glide from one to the next, and the humor gets darker and darker. Oh, and the performances are a total joy.

But what is it? Reviews praised it as an extravagant reach-for-the-sky film, confirming that we don’t know what that means. It is true that “Saltburn” has wealthy characters whose shallowness is comically annoying and a character named Oliver (Barry Keoghan) on the outside of that bubble, who is as intrigued with that world.

So when Oliver plunges into violence and self-satisfied evilness against the elite, it’s hard to get the feeling that he is motivated by vengeance or jealousy.

©MGM- Amazon Studios

The Cast

The cast of characters is collectively outstanding, making the film work within the Hitchcock vibe. However, it is the performance of Barry Keoghan that stands out. His portrayal of Oliver rides from apparently naive to skillfully cunning to mentally bothered. What’s more, his graveyard scene is a rather alarmingly creepy sex scene. This is tempered with another scene where Oliver celebrates how his plans have paid off and dances throughout the mansion in his birthday suit. This performance makes Keoghan deceptively fearless and a must-see of 2023.

Right behind him is the Rosamund Pike as, Felix’s cold-as-ice mother. Pike blossoms with characters who seem cold but are just women whose sense of reality is a little off-kilter from the rest of society. She’s brilliant in an understated performance that rivals any other actress this season. In a bit of a hilariously comedic throwaway cameo, Carey Mulligan also provides stellar characterization in the role of Poor Dear Pamela.

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Our Saltburn review

We have a movie about an insane young guy who goes on a riot against not what they have or who they are. Instead, it’s really about who he is not. That’s a fascinating topic that Saltburn should have been more careful about. Instead, we got a pretty film about an intelligent young man who gets a touch of the wealthy lifestyle after meeting Felix (Jacob Elordi) and his squad while attending Oxford University and viciously entering their circle. Furthermore, he plans to get invited to Felix’s home and castle during school break.

As we watched the movie, we thought of Matt Damon in 1999’s homoerotic thriller, “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” who skillfully penetrates Jude Law’s hedonistic life and turns it upside down. Also, Oliver is functionally out of his mind. He takes that out on a ridiculous, self-absorbed family whose only faults are silly and self-absorbed. That’s nothing to wish their end for. Due to spoilers, the movie points virtually to the issue of wealth dissimilarity.

©MGM- Amazon Studios

This movie doesn’t focus on the haves and the have-nots. Instead, it’s the haves and the want more. That’s a separate discussion, one that points to each of their relationships with capitalism and wealth. That’s why. There’s room for a scan there, but this movie doesn’t bother with it.

Part of the problem is how we anticipate films like Saltburn and what we launch onto them versus what they are. Our worldviews versus what is presented to us on screen. This movie falls into some of that. But it could be more interesting in this regard.

There is a black-tie requirement for dinner in the family dining room. A scene where he goes down on Felix’s sister (Alison Oliver) on the lawn in the middle of the night. The time when he orgasmically sucks up Felix’s dirty bathwater. Fennell takes pleasure in revolting her audience and bringing us discreetly inside a uniquely grotesque story that capitalism and desire perhaps had a hand in building. We’re rooted in Oliver’s perspective the entire time in Saltburn, which makes the character at least penetrable to the audience.

We see his desire for Felix and all the gorgeous finery inside the mansion in equal measure. In turn, Fennell points us to the ripples in Felix’s abs and the luscious house decor and land around it.

There’s glee in that. The silly banter among Felix’s relatives, including cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe, who we’ll get to in a bit), mother (Rosamund Pike), and dad (Richard E. Grant), only adds to that thrill.

Fennell gives such great dialogue in Saltburn, but it is not an inspired story. However, that’s fun to watch, particularly among a sizeable theatrical audience.

This is often tucked into the whole tit-for-tat vibe baked into the story’s fabric. But it’s brushed off when Farleigh surfaces Felix with honest worries about how easy it was for Oliver to charmingly come into the family as opposed to his position in it.

Though that dismissiveness feels true to Felix, it only intensifies questions of race in a story that aims to provoke thoughts around privilege. That becomes especially obvious the more you learn about Oliver in the film. So often in predominantly white films like this, the class becomes the default gateway to discussions of wealth when race is just as essential and further complicates that.

Furthermore, the movie rarely attempts to employ racial politics. There’s an opportunity to do that more deeply in Saltburn, but it doesn’t.
But it only comes across somewhat in the movie. Any efforts to depict Farleigh feeling the need to perform among his white family constantly are undercut by his more prominent showoff that he radiates even in scenes without his family around. Who is he, really, inside this story? Collateral damage.

Still, we’re talking about stories that confront issues. In that case, it’s hard not to wonder what “Saltburn” would have been like if Farleigh was the bitter character at the core of this story and not Oliver. Then we might have been on to something here.

Saltburn review – Final thoughts

For all those who were expecting some extra gay movie, we have to admit that this film is no more gay than The Talented Mister Ripley. However, not all is about sex and male kissing, right?

Regardless, Saltburn is a mean, dark comedy that enables the audience to cheer for a hideous protagonist. Keoghan has perfected the art of playing a wolf in sheep’s clothing in films like American Animals and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Still, Oliver might be his most stellar sociopath yet. Combined with a killer soundtrack, hilarious supporting characters, and lavish visuals, Saltburn is a tasty cinematic gloating.