Saltburn

Emerald Fennell writes and directs the darkly satirical, Saltburn. Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is an Oxford university student, he feels and finds himself out of place. However that changes when he has a chance encounter with the wealthy and popular Felix (Jacob Elordi), suddenly he’s in with the popular crowd. At the end of term Felix invites him to summer at his family home, Saltburn. It’s a sprawling country estate, where his eccentric upper class family live a life divorced from reality with realtionships that are cold and fractured. But as Ollie and Felix realtionship change, so life at Saltburn takes a dark turn and life will never be the same again.

Emerald Fennel has already shown she is a filmmaker who will take a chance and does so here with this tale that is crazy, dark and twisted in all of the best ways. It is beautifully layered, leaving you never sure where it is going. It looks at class, Felix’s parents played brilliantly by Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike, full of “stiff upper lip”, repressed emotions and tradition and a family full of entitlement. Then there’s Oliver’s naked ambition to be part of a world he finds himself outside of. All this mixed in with a dark thriller and even darker comedy.

The performances are excellent, Keoghan at the heart of it, from nervous nobody to powerful and inbcontrol and all that’s in between. Elordi as the complex Felix, and of course Grant and Rosamund Pike excel alongside him.

It’s wonderfully shot with Fennell showing yet again she knows to to make a film. It’s 4:3 ratio used to show the grandeur of its world but also the perfect way to pull in close when it’s demanded. And there is a final scene that uses “Murder on the dance floor” in a way you will long remember.

Saltburn is bonkers and gloriously dark and twisted. It is also fabulously enthralling, full of excellent performances with Barry Keoghan wonderful in the lead role. It looks great and is full of big ideas and risks in its story telling. Fennell again shows she is not afraid to gamble and here it pays off brilliantly.