Where I Watched It: Amazon

English Audio Description Provided By: Deluxe

Written By Edwin Wells

Directed By: Matthew Vickers

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi,Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Archie Madekwe, Alison Oliver, and Carey Mulligan

Written and Directed By: Emerald Fennell

It’s the salacious film of the year. Scandalous. Divisive. Is it a pretentious work, or has writer/director Emerald Fennell once again struck gold after her debut with Promising Young Woman? In what can only be an homage to the aspirations of youth in the novels like Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Fennell has chosen her whip smart protagonist to be Oliver Quick (Keoghan), a gifted youth attending Oxford, who aspires to be so much more than he is, but seems shy in his approach. He idolizes a wealthy popular boy (Elordi) on campus, and hopes to curry his favor somehow. Eventually, the two end up as friends, much to the chagrin of Farley (Madekwe), who is already in the best friend role to the popular Felix.

Following a pretty obvious three act structure, the second act involves Felix inviting Oliver to spend the summer at his house. Actually, house just doesn’t cut it. Oprah. Whatever you think she lives in, this is like that. It’s so big it doesn’t have an address, it has a name,. Salt burn. When your home has a name, and you have your own maze, you’ve made it.

The opulence is on display from the moment the unsuspecting Oliver first enters Saltburn, from the staff on hand, to a rather hilarious tour of the house given by Felix. There’s a moment where Felix points out a room known only as “the blue room”. It seemingly has no purpose other than they had a room, and made it blue. That’s how big Saltburn is, and Felix’s introduction to his home was one of my favorite things about the movie, as his details are frank, funny, and sometimes bluntly off-color.

Oliver soon meets the rest of the family, Felix’s mother (Pike), father (Grant), and sister (Oliver),and Farley is still hanging around.During the second act, Oliver takes the time to settle into Saltburn, and learn his surroundings, and bond with those around him. And then… well… I can’t spoil everything for you, can I?

Fennell clearly has drawn inspiration from a few films that pop into mind rather quickly, but in some ways, the acts in this film aren’t even as shocking as some of the things I’ve already seen this year. Sure, she’s provocative in her approach to this glamorous lifestyle, and what it costs to maintain, but there was a giant penis living in an attic already in a film this year. Last years best Picture winner had characters fighting with dildos, while Oscar contender Babylon had an Elephant take a massive shit all over a person. Maybe, instead of us being shocked by Saltburn, we should be noticing the commentary Fennell is also making on what it takes to even turn heads in 2023.

While the things that happen in Saltburn are certainly the kinds of things I expect caused some walkouts, I can’t say it’s the stuff of legend either. For anyone who saw Fennell’s last work, the daring Promising Young Woman, the ending alone suggests to you that she is unafraid of taking the road less traveled in her stories. But in both of her films, she creates these truly well rounded characters we become invested in their individual growths. I enjoy Keoghan here more than I did in his Oscar nominated turn in banshees last year. He wasn’t the take away out of that film for me, but here, he expertly has shaped Oliver to be exactly what Fennell is hoping for. The rare protagonist/antagonist whose evolution and choices cause people to have conversations about who really was the hero of a potentially hero less story.

Jacob Elordi continues to impress me with his second knockout performance. He was terrifying as Sofia Coppola’s Elvis Presley, and he’s so instantly engaging and charming here as Felix. Meanwhile, Archie Madekwe is in his second terrific performance that is also wildly different. He started out as the gamer to cheer for in Gran Turismo, and finished as Farley, who even after you get to know him, is still a difficult character to actually like.

A lot of hype is on Rosamund Pike’s performance, and while she’s consistently a terrific actress, most of what people love about her is her ability to deliver the searing lines Fennell has written for her. She says some of the most bizarre shit, like whatever comes to mind immediately comes out of her mouth. It’s an oddly striking role, as you never quite know what to make of her, and the film certainly uses that against her in the end ultimately.

I was also a fan of the score. Not only does it weave actual pop songs in and out of the mix, but it really does match the one of every moment. It’s likely a very underrated score this year, but worth mentioning.

the audio description track came along at just the right time. I had this great debate among other blind film lovers about when to name a character, and I’m all about giving as much information that isn’t an actual spoiler as possible. Saltburn smacks a lot of my antagonists in the face. There’s a great moment where Felix and Farley are seen at a party, and they are seen with a girl we haven’t met yet. However, the narrator immediately defines her as india. She’s only seen at a distance, and I’ve been struggling to figure out what exactly her contribution to the story was. She’s a character that exists, and her name certainly isn’t a spoiler, because she has nothing to do with the story. But I know Felix and Farley were standing with her.

the rest of the narration shines in describing the wealth on display throughout Saltburn, as well as some of the more controversial moments. There are even some shots taken that feel like Fennell is creating a specific image that is a homage to something that inspired her. A party with some of the oddest costumes is an excellent example of this. it reminded me of that bizarre party baz Luhrmann staged in Romeo + Juliet, but a 2023 version.

I truly cannot stress enough that this movie is not for everybody. If you get queasy easily during films, and you typically avoid films that “go there”, Saltburn lives there. it doesn’t just go there, it is the there that the others go to. If you are used to seeing this kind of material, and films I’ve already mentioned did nothing to you, then you might just love Saltburn. It is too easy to just write it off as this years Babylon, because the structures are so different, but they both share a polarizing potential. Love it or hate it. That overused phrase applies here, because I can’t see people just finding this to be in the middle.

For me, I loved it. Even though I see the films that Saltburn owes a debt to clearly in the plot of this film, it’s fennell’s take on this material that I embrace. It’s both a commentary on wealth and also where film is in 2023. Is she really making something so audacious, or is she just keeping up with the times? For those of you who live a little dangerously in your cinematic viewing, has Fennell really broken new ground in 2023, or is she just making a point about what she needs to do simply to keep up?

Final Grade: A