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| Images courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios |
Writer-director Emerald Fennell really doesn’t like Greg
Mottola’s 2007 nerd sex comedy Superbad.
From taking down McLovin’(Christopher Mintz-Plasse) in her divisive and
searing debut film Promising Young Woman to pitting a scene of the hedonistic
spoiled brats of her new movie Saltburn half-boredly watching Superbad,
the gal has a bone to pick with that movie.
Though by the end of her transgressive, wallowing, debauched new look at
the gradual ingratiation and assimilation of a wealthy family estate by a
cunning and conniving young predator, it is hard to find a collective of
characters more thoroughly unlikable than the ones imagined here by Fennell. A film that runs fiercely in the opposite
direction of her first feature technically and artistically while turning up
the volume on the more reptilian elements, think of it as The Talented Mr.
Ripley directed by Claire Denis or Teoroma starring the cold-blooded
lizards of Cosmopolis.
Opening in 2006 at Oxford University the film follows poor
nerdy new student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan reprising The Killing of a Sacred
Deer) as he tries to blend in with the student body. On the first day his eyes catch popular rich
student Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi fresh off of Priscilla) and a chance
meeting over a bike with a flat tire sparks an unlikely friendship. After confiding in Felix his parents died,
Oliver gets the opportunity of a lifetime when the wealthy new friend invites
him over to his family’s elaborate and gargantuan country home estate Saltburn
for the remainder of the summer, an offer Oliver can’t refuse. Once there, he meets up with his father Sir James
(Richard E. Grant), his mother Lady Elsbeth (Rosamund Pike) and sister Venetia (Alison
Oliver) and quickly adopts to their opulent way of life. Little do the narcissistic and half-bored cretins
know there’s a wolf in sheep’s skin in their midst biding his time for the
right moment to advance himself within their hierarchy and perverse sexual
needs.
Co-produced by Fennell and Margot Robbie, Saltburn is
second to Infinity Pool or Divinity for being among the most
sexually audacious films of the year while also going for brutal vulgar shocks. Both a peer into a world of sensual excesses and
overindulgence of the British ruling class while also being a study of pure
male id, Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman is the
polar antithesis to that film by focusing more explicitly on male behavior while
pushing boundaries in mainstream cinema.
The hardest R rated film I can remember escaping an NC-17, Saltburn starts
out like flashy luxury estate porn before gradually developing into a sort of
darkly comic thriller concerning wealth, power and sex.
Sharing in the animated opening titles sequences of Promising
Young Woman while jettisoning that picture’s panoramic widescreen ratio for
a tighter, insular 1.33:1 Academy Ratio by Babylon cinematographer Linus
Sandgren, the look of Saltburn is, according to the director, like
peering through a window gazing in on what goes on behind the closed doors of
the filthy rich. That’s not to say the
tight ratio doesn’t achieve a vastness with frequent wide shots of tarnished
set pieces from drunken coke fueled parties from the night before. The film also reunites Fennell with composer
Anthony Willis who weaves a deliberately melodramatic orchestral score in
between pipe organs and dirty synth electronica growls. The film is also a firestorm chock full of
needle drops including but not limited to MGMT, Pet Shop Boys, The Killers,
Arcade Fire and Sophie Ellis Bextor.
Barry Keoghan is hitting his stride and diving more freely
into daring, provocative roles and this is debatably his riskiest yet. Vampiric and feral, lurking and skulking
about before creeping in for a hungry feeding, Keoghan though riffing somewhat
on his role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is an absolute animal in Saltburn. Fennell asks a lot of her male lead including
but not limited to full frontal nudity and Keoghan attacks it like a hyena
lunging for its prey. Equally strong is
Jacob Elordi as the mysterious, alluring rich kid Felix Catton who seems to have
the upper hand in the social arena but is unaware of the parasite he has taken
under his wing. Rosamund Pike gives
perhaps her best, most committed performance since Gone Girl in a terrific
supporting turn and Promising Young Woman fans are inclined to watch for
a sneaky Carey Mulligan cameo.
Gross, vile, predatory and yet compulsively watchable, Emerald
Fennell’s full-throated provocation is not for all tastes and there were times
when the sneak preview audience audibly squirmed in their seats. But for the more daring and adventurous
cinephiles Saltburn is a bit like electroshock therapy. Designed to be a mindblower and a scandalizing
shock to the senses, the new effort though a bit on the long-winded side
represents a fresh, unexpected new turn for the director of the still
polarizing feminist epic. A bumpy, perverse,
deliciously (or disgustingly) depraved but beautiful ride to see and hear, Saltburn
is poised to divide, offend and enthrall.
Wild and wicked stuff but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Fasten your seatbelts!
--Andrew Kotwicki
