David Caballero
Overall , 2023 was a great year for pic . We had everything , fromjaw - dropping epics likeOppenheimerto insightfulfantasy masterpieces likeAll of Us Strangers . Yet , for every great moving-picture show , we also had some truly execrable efforts , fromstinkers likeAnt - Man and the Wasp : Quantumaniato scotch rubbish likeGhosted . Yet , out of this mickle of misery and waste product , no 2023 film pee me off more thanSaltburn , Emerald Fennell ’s psychosexual / psychological thriller starring Oscar - candidate Barry Keoghan .
As an unapologetic fan of Fennell ’s previous motion picture , 2020’sPromising Young Woman , I had high hopes forSaltburn . Yet , I was met with nothing but failure and ineptitude , good manners of a film that is far too concerned with shameful viewers to deliver any illusion of true shock . EverythingPromising Young Woman‘s detractors complained about is extravagantly present inSaltburn , quite perchance the most desperate film I have seen in recent retentiveness .
David Caballero
Nothing new under the sun
If this assumption sounds familiar , it ’s becauseSaltburnshamelessly rip off many proficient films that came before it , especially Anthony Minghella ’s superb 1999 thrillerThe Talented Mr. Ripley . But Fennell ai n’t no Minghella , and Elordi sure as hell ai n’t no Jude Law . They both do lazy and surface imitations of the 1999 classic , to the point whereSaltburnoften feels like a straight - up impersonation rather than a homage .
The supporting cast fares equally poorly , let down by a screenplay so concerned with being provocative that it forget to be interesting . Rosamund Pike is only there to bear purportedly witty one - liners that are neither pungent , nor in particular cagy ; if they occasionally follow , it ’s only because it ’s Pike render them . She gets better material inThe Wheel of Time , which is saying something .
Keoghan is the only one who get something interesting to wreak with , and he more often than not succeeds . His arresting , distinctively discomforting persona is a great fit for Oliver , and his bizarre get-up-and-go makes a Herculean movement to sellSaltburn‘s weak plot . IfSaltburndoesn’t entirely collapse on its own system of weights , it ’s all because of Keoghan , whose understated coming matchesMatt Damon ’s take on Tom Ripley . If anything , Fennell at least has a good eye for talent ; as Carey Mulligan did withPromising Young Woman , Keoghan elevatesSaltburn , induce its maladroit managing director look better than she is .
Saltburn reeks of desperation
If there ’s a thing that in truth stand out to me aboutSaltburn , it ’s how despairing it is . It ’s desperate to seismic disturbance , provoke , entice , and be memorable ; it follow at only one of these . The progeny here is that Fennell has nothing interesting to say about class , compulsion , ambitiousness , or dissimulation . Her attempts to be subversive are eyebrow - raising at best and straight-out ridiculous at bad .
Fennell retrieve “ sexual urge ” equals “ dirt , ” which is not only a terribly backward view , but one that she ca n’t even perform interestingly . It ’s as if she meet with a bunch of teenagers who told her what would be the “ wildest ” affair she could put in the movie , and then she did , just for the saki of it . I can much hear the brutish laughs : “ Emerald , what if hedrinksthe tub water ? ” enounce Biff . “ And what if hehas sex with the grave ? ” evoke Johnny . “ Lolololol . ” Is n’t itwild ?
Like the protagonist at its center , Saltburncraves the attention give to the nerveless boys . It wants to be a sweaty , addictive erotic thriller while thinking too highly of itself to actually embrace the sleaze that made the musical genre such a juggernaut in the first place . Perhaps that’sSaltburn‘s expectant issue : it want to have its patty and corrode it , too . But you ca n’t be9 1/2 WeeksandThe gifted Mr. Ripleyat once , and something tells me Fennell deluded herself into thinkingSaltburncould be .
Saltburnbecame a hit once it bring toAmazon Prime Video , not as a prestigiousness , Oscar - suitable vehicle , but as a hangdog - pleasure ticker , the kind of moving-picture show you memorialise your old momma watching so you may upload it to TikTok for cheap laughs . At least everyone involved seems to have run away with this so - bad - it’s - good report . Just this calendar week , Keoghan was nakedon the cover ofVanity Fair . He and Fennell also dida questionable shoot forW , once again shamelessly ripping off a cult classic for impressions . More exponent to them , I estimate . Because ifSaltburnembraced despair , why should n’t they ?
More a fizzle than a bang
Saltburnwon’t age as a great , misunderstood cult definitive likeJennifer ’s consistence ; it wo n’t even age as a so - forged - it’s - good guilty joy , constantly rewatched for laughs likeShowgirlsorSpice World . If it ’s recollect at all , it will be seen as a a despairing endeavor to capture the zeitgeist , which it did for about 10 instant , before being forgotten again .
In a few year , when we take care back at 2023 , we ’ll intend fondly of trulygroundbreaking victory likePoor Thingsor monumental achievements likeOppenheimer . But will we even think ofSaltburn ? And if we do , will it be anything other than , “ I ca n’t believe anyone thoughtthatwas interesting , let alone provocative . ” But ifSaltburnwas the price we had to pay to convey the terminally underestimate British dada singer Sophie Ellis - Bextor back into the mainstream , then I ’m fine with it survive . We ’ll always haveMurder on the Dance Floor .
Saltburnis rain cats and dogs onAmazon Prime Video . Do n’t say I did n’t warn you .
