MOVIE
Title: Saltburn
Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike
Studio: LuckyChap, 2023
There is a scene in Saltburn that had one cinema patron laughing out loud, but the rest of us were quiet, possibly trying to work out whether this faintly absurdist act was one of deep unrequited love and grief, a literal ‘fuck you’, or maybe both. The film plays with contradictions and misdirections, as a privileged university student takes one less so under his wing, the consequences playing out during a holiday break at the family mansion where the dysfunctional outfit is on full display. It’s a film that speaks to those who believe that wealth is wasted on the rich, wonderfully portrayed by Richard E Grant and Pike as the parents whose echo chamber is devoid of self awareness and moral conscience. The characters generally aren’t likeable, not even our narrator and protagonist, Oliver (Keoghan), so keen to enter this rarefied milieu, and we are left to enjoy the revelations without minding who comes out on top. Wicked fun.
