Review: Saltburn

Image courtesy of MGM.

Emerald Fennell's sophomore film, "Saltburn," is trying, perhaps, even harder than her debut, the solid "Promising Young Woman," to push buttons. Granted, her previous film took a very serious topic - date rape - and turned it into a twisty thriller that was more entertaining and funnier, albeit darkly, than any movie on such a topic had the right to be. 

Her latest film feels like a director trying her hand at well-trodden territory - in this case, an upstart trying to finagle his way into the society of the wealthy - and doing something if not new, then certainly more outrageous, with it. Blending elements of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with the boarding school thriller trappings of such novels as "The Secret History" and "Black Chalk," "Saltburn" starts off innocently enough before veering - much like Fennell's previous film - into much darker, and in this case more scandalous, territory.

Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan, seemingly an expert at deeply unsettling performances) is a scholarship student at Oxford University who becomes fixated on Felix (Jacob Elordi, seen recently as the King of Rock 'n Roll in "Priscilla"), the handsome scion of a posh British family whose titular estate rivals only Versailles in terms of size and ostentatious decor. After ingratiating himself with Felix's friends - although looked upon with suspicion by Felix's gay cousin, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) - Oliver is invited to spend the summer at the palatial Saltburn estate.

Oliver is warned by several characters that Felix has previously taken an interest on lower class toys - Oliver tells Felix a sob story about drug-addicted parents but we always have the sense that there's something off about his story - that he likes to befriend, bring home for the summer, and then discard when he becomes bored with them. 

Regardless, Oliver throws himself into the world of Saltburn with aplomb. He attempts to seduce not just one (Felix's faux-tragic sister, Venetia, played by Alison Oliver) but two characters during his stay, and gets on the right side of Elspeth (Rosamund Pike, who gets many of the film's funniest lines), Felix's mother, a former model whose casually cruel dismissal of those who bore her rival her son's own fleeting interests. Felix's father, Sir James (Richard E. Grant), is flighty to an almost childlike degree.

As the summer wears on and Felix does indeed become bored with Oliver, the latter ups his game in horrific ways to ensure that he can stay on at Saltburn. A rivalry with Farleigh is ongoing, a seduction of one character is brief but graphically memorable, and a series of jokes involving the level to which the family's head butler must degrade himself is never not funny.

I liked "Saltburn" and appreciated how unapologetically warped it is. There's a sex scene involving a gravesite that I doubt anyone who's seen it will forget, and a great few scenes with Carey Mulligan as a quickly discarded friend who is also crashing at the estate. 

However, it doesn't have as much to say as "Promising Young Woman" and, therefore, all the shock value throughout the course of the film doesn't pack quite the punch that Fennell's previous film did. There's always good fodder for satires about the horrors of becoming entrenched with vapid, rich layabouts - a throwaway line about the importance of staying on a lunch schedule after the discovery of a dead body left me not knowing whether to wince or laugh uncomfortably - but there's not necessarily anything new being said here. "Promising Young Woman," on the other hand, felt like it was risking something.

That's not to say that "Saltburn" isn't good - it is. It goes on about 10 to 15 minutes too long and its final sequence involving a celebratory dance works overtime to be provocative, but this is a mostly engrossing - and often visually gorgeous - thriller that blends elements of Patricia Highsmith - Oliver is a more debauched Tom Ripley - and Donna Tartt's seminal novel, "The Secret History," about a lower class character becoming enmeshed in a group of rich - and possibly dangerous - students. 

As such, "Saltburn" is a wicked entertainment. Not everything about it works, but it's often quite funny and even has a few solid twists up its sleeve. I can't think of a more uncomfortable movie to take the family to on Thanksgiving.