Jacked In Reviews ‘Saltburn’ (2023)

Academy Award-winning, Emerald Fennell brings us her much-anticipated follow-up to Promising Young Woman. The darkly comedic, stylistic, satirical thriller, surrounding class and depravity (quite the understatement), Saltburn.

The story follows Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), an outcast Oxford student who is befriended by his devilishly handsome, upper-class, school chum, Felix (Jacob Elordi). Only to end up forming quite the obsession – before getting his feet under the table and seeing how the other half lives.

Keoghan masters unhinged but his motivations seem muddly.

With the noughties setting – not to mention some uncanny character resemblances – it almost just feels like an extended episode of Skins. Keoghan masters unhinged but his motivations seem muddly. There are moments within the film that are as sporadic as his mood changes and feel somewhat out of place tonally, to the rest of the movie. This includes the narration cutaways that don’t know whether they want to be a part of the movie or not but namely the more provocative scenes (#bathcocktail).

However, take away THOSE SCENES and you’re left with a somewhat flat version of a story that has been executed much better in movies before this one.

It’s these provoking scenes that are creating a lot of the hype for this picture and they certainly succeed in creating shock. However, take away THOSE SCENES and you’re left with a somewhat flat version of a story that has been executed much better in movies before this one. In saying that, there is a scene during a particular “time of the month” that brilliantly showcases Oliver as the vampiric leech he truly is in a very literal form.

Due to such attention being fixated on the warped mind aspect of the character, it leaves us with a pretty anti-climatic reveal (you mean it was the crazy guy the whole time!?… who knew!) and a payoff that doesn’t feel earned. By the finale, the shock factors have almost run out of steam and we’re left with a dance sequence which could have been enjoyable elsewhere but in this feature, it just beckons a shrug by the time it arrives.

A saving grace for the film is the grandness of the cinematography – none too surprising with Linus Sandgren (Babylon) at the helm – and its ability to give the Saltburn estate a pulse.

A saving grace for the film is the grandness of the cinematography – none too surprising with Linus Sandgren (Babylon) at the helm – and its ability to give the Saltburn estate a pulse. Aussie actor, Elordi slides into his privileged part seamlessly but it is his family that well and truly steals the show.

Although the residents of Saltburn could be seen as caricatures of the “elite”, that is precisely where the movie finds its fun.

Although the residents of Saltburn could be seen as caricatures of the “elite”, that is precisely where the movie finds its fun. Especially with their brilliant banter, they create hilarity effortlessly with flippant comments and first-world problems. Namely, Elspeth Catton (Rosamund Pike), who sums up her character wonderfully by citing the rumour that Pulp’s song, Common People was based on her. And of course, Richard E. Grant, doing what he does best as the aristocratic, Sir James Catton.

Available on Amazon Prime

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