Saltburn (2023)

Having being a fan of Promising Young Woman, I was keen to see what Emerald Fennell would come up with next. The story is that we follow Oliver Quick as he becomes friends with Felix and there is a world collide type plot going on. It's a case of the haves and the have nots and the have's taking pity on the have nots and trying to make themselves feel good about it.

There are a couple of times in the movie that I found myself being slightly uncomfortable (which is probably the point), the first is when after Felix......enjoys himself in the bath, Oliver then decides to drink the bathwater and seems to lick the plughole which was the first time that I was worried that the film was going to go into territory which would ruin my enjoyment of this movie. The second time came when after Felix dies and is buried, Oliver strips naked and goes on top of the grave. From a visual point of view its well shot but did make me wonder if the film was going to tip over into tasteless but mercifully it didnt....just.

I got a Parasite vibe watching this movie and I mean that as a compliment and whilst that film does it better this I thought that it invokes that film in a way that works and made me like this film more. Barry Keoghan was really good as Oliver and when the truth comes out about him, I still found myself liking the character. The moment when its revealed that Oliver's family are alive and well and not as bad as had been portrayed was a big moment in the film and that's when the film starts to change and go in a different direction. When we see how Oliver has manipulated events to get into the position he is now in, I still find myself liking Oliver but I suspect htat not everybody feels the same.

I thought that Jacob Elordi played the entitled Felix with a likeability that makes his downfall more impactful than it could have been. Richard E. Grant was the only person that I felt really sad about the fate of their character, Sir James was the closest to being a normal person and when he tries to buy off Oliver you want him to be able to get rid of the leech because he has lost so much in a short period of time.

I think that this film is better than Promising Young Woman but it shows Fennell growing as a film maker and I look forward to what she comes up with in the future. It takes what on the face of it would be totally unlikeable character and makes them likeable enough to care about and Barry Keoghan shows that his performance in the Banshees of Inisherin wasn't a fluke.