SALTBURN – Review by Serena Seghedoni

Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn is a wickedly subversive, exquisitely twisty character study that leaves no room for redemption and satisfying resolutions, and that’s the real genius of it.

Saltburn is proving to be one of the most divisive films at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival, and it’s not hard to understand why. Its premise – a young man from humble origins struggles to fit in at university until he meets a wealthy, gorgeous student who invites him to his family’s estate for the summer – immediately calls for comparisons to various novels and movies that tackled similar themes in the past.

But those who are expecting a crossover between The Talented Mr. Ripley and Brideshead Revisited will be disappointed, as there is no satisfaction to be gained from watching evil geniuses do their magic, just like there are no hidden motivations to uncover that would justify their actions and make us understand them.

But that is precisely what makes Saltburn so subversive: Fennell isn’t interested in redemption or forgiveness. In a film that’s as exquisitely twisty as it is purposefully frustrating, she shows us that anyone can do wicked, evil things, and that there doesn’t need to be a reason for it. Not only that, but their immoral actions don’t necessarily make them more interesting.

At the center of it all is a young student named Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), who begins his first year at Oxford University with no friends, struggling to fit into a world where he clearly doesn’t belong. One day, he stumbles upon popular, charming student Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), and the two of them soon become friends. Having learned of the sudden death of Oliver’s alcoholic father, Felix invites him to his family’s estate – the titular Saltburn – for the summer. There, we soon become acquainted with his eccentric relatives, who all have a habit of talking behind everyone’s backs and constantly changing their minds about one another. But Felix’s mother (Rosamund Pike’s Elspeth), father (Richard E. Grant’s Sir James) and sister (Alison Oliver’s Venetia) aren’t the only Saltburn residents. Joining them are Felix’s cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) and Elspeth’s friend Pamela (Carey Mulligan), who are both trying to exploit the family in different ways, and whose presence causes even more chaos for our protagonist.

As we watch Oliver become acquainted with Saltburn’s customs and its residents’ quirks, we soon realize that he knows exactly how to manipulate them, and that he’s not the harmless, inexperienced young man we thought he was. But who is he, really? As we watch him get closer to Felix and fight the many obstacles that come his way, we discover more sides of his personality but we never really find the answer.

Barry Keoghan shines in a role he was born to play, and his committed performance works with Fennell’s clever script to give us scenes that will make you laugh, break your heart, make you root for him, and disgust you, often at the same time. Eventually, all is revealed, but that doesn’t mean we get to know him any better. And yet, we can’t help but smile as the end credits roll, imagining Fennell smiling back at us from behind the screen as the message of the film comes through. We don’t really need to have all the answers: what matters is that we enjoyed the ride.

And what a ride it was. With stunning cinematography (Linus Sandgren), the perfect score (Hugh Brunt), incredible performances from the entire cast, and a script that allows for just the right blend of irony, darkness, controlled chaos, and sexual tension, Saltburn is a highly enjoyable movie that will have your eyes glued to the screen from start to end.

Fennell defies our expectations and delivers a clever character study disguised as an “eat the rich” satire, where everyone is a horrible person and absolutely deserves what they get. The end result is an infinitely clever, hilarious, subversive film that shouldn’t work, and yet, somehow, it does. Though Saltburn doesn’t reach the heights of Promising Young Woman, it confirms Emerald Fennell as one of the best women voices of our generation with a film that absolutely belongs to her, in the very best sense of the word.