Saltburn: Movie Review

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Alison Oliver, Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Archie Madekwe
Director: Emerald Fennell

With its slick mix of Parasite stylings, elements of the Talented Mr Ripley and shades of Cruel Intentions, Emerald Fennell's blistering follow up to Promising Young Woman is one of the more electric releases in cinemas in 2023.

It's the psychological tale of Oliver Quick (Keoghan, in a truly mesmerising performance), a boy who comes from poor upbringings in the north of England and finds himself accepted to study at the hallowed halls of Oxford University in 2006.

But while he's accepted into the university, he's not accepted into the world that surrounds it, with its cliques and elites. Obsessed with the idea of becoming friends with the permanently popular Felix (Elordi), Oliver suddenly finds an opening to join the in-crowd and seizes it with both hands.

As friendship blossoms, Felix invites Oliver back to their family estate for the summer - but will the poor boy be accepted into the higher societal echelons or will it be a midsummer nightmare as Oliver grapples with the privilege of his position? Is he protege or pet?

Saltburn is a stylish piece of somewhat depraved cinema that leaves you sat bolt upright in your seat as it plays out.

Pulpy and lurid, yet peppered with some black as night one liners over class and perception, Fennell's script is a perhaps over-polished apparent takedown of the upper classes and those who sit on judgement on others. Throw in some homoeroticism and some murkier moments, and it proves to be a potent mix.

But it would be nothing without Keoghan's unbelievably compelling performance throughout. Despite Pike's acerbic one-liners and Grant's self-detachment and delusion as Felix's parents, the camera focus is solely on Keoghan in his first lead role and he seizes it with gusto, switching effortlessly between desperation, ambition, menace and mischief with utter aplomb.

The level of ambiguity is ramped up throughout, and while there are mystery seeds sown through the story, this is really a take on gender, class, society and identity that has its seeds in the outsider-looking-in stories we've seen before.

It may fall foul of Fennell's continued last act desire to explain everything a la Promising Young Woman (a little dramatic ambiguity would not have gone amiss), yet it remains an utterly enthrallingly seductive watch - despite feeling less satirical than one imagines Fennell would have desired.

There's a callous vibe to Saltburn that's utterly contagious, and while it feels mischievous and cold in parts, it's a delicious cinema dish to devour with a final scene that's as memorable as it is ghastly.