In 2023, class-conscious cinema changed forever with the arrival… of Saltburn. The film was Emerald Fennell’s eagerly awaited follow-up to her acclaimed, Oscar-winning dark comedy/revenge thriller, Promising Young Woman. Fennell (sister of fashion designer, Coc0) would make history twice over with Promising Young Woman: she became the first British woman to get a Best Director nomination at the Oscars and the first British woman to win solo in the Best Original Screenplay category. If Promising Young Woman was her candy-colo(u)red take on the rape and revenge thriller, Saltburn was her searing exposé on the wretched excesses of the old money aristocrats and the envious middle class plebs who, with a steely determination to make Mrs. Thatcher envious, scheme into their lushly decorated mansions. A dark tale spun with poisonous sugar and cum-soaked bathwater, the film is like Brideshead Revisited crossed with an episode of Euphoria.

In short, it’s fabulous. Move over Ken Loach and Jilly Cooper, here’s the *real* dirty, dishing details of England’s moneyed class! 

Saltburn follows Oliver, a working class lad at Oxford (Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan), who falls under the hypnotic spell of Felix (Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi), a wealthy, impossibly cool student whose family owns the imposing Saltburn medieval mansion (in real life, it’s Drayton House). After Oliver’s father dies, Feliz takes pity on the poor hapless chap and invites him to spend the summer with him and his family. Felix’s mum and dad (Oscar nominees Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant) politely receive the Oliver, while his sister Venetia (Task co-star Allison Oliver) has a flirty interest in him. Felix’s American cousin, Farleigh (Lurker breakout Archie Madekwe) has his own snobby, but *possibly* accurate take that Oliver is up to no good. Soon enough, scandalous secrets and desires start bubbling away before, in the wise words of Tina Fey, “Act Three takes a sexually violent turn and you have to pretend to be surprised by that turn.” 

Watching Saltburn involves, first and foremost, giving over to Fennell’s deliciously overheated imagination of how class, sex, privilege, and narcissism intersect. She said she aimed for “Barry Lyndon meets indie sleaze,” but with a narrative that cheerfully cartwheels through so many carefully timed coincidences, it can feel a bit like “Barry Lyndon as written by the creators of Footballers’ Wives.” Much of a muchness, as they say. Lizard brain shock value, especially when dressed up like this is its own deletable treat. It helps that the cast is fully attuned with what the material demands. Elordi and Pike fare best, with the former bringing a oblivious quality that is balanced with the right bratty note, and the latter sending up every brittle, judgemental aristocratic matriarch from the British film/TV/literature of yesteryear. Grant hams it up admirable, Madekwe and Oliver bring a cool understated wit to the haughty monstrosities they play. As for Keoghan, he gives it all, bringing all of Oliver’s pathetic and downright unsettling neediness to live while never losing site of the film’s excess. One has to admire his moxie, especially with an ending that involves him getting his lad out to make a point (the point being… “Murder on the Dancefloor” still bops). 

Unfortunately, unlike Promising Young Woman, didn’t quite set the award world alight when it debuted in 2023. It gained respectful reviews and $21 million at the global box office, and it scooped up 5 BAFTA nominations, including Outstanding British Film, but no Oscar nominations from the “uncouth peasants” at the Academy. Thankfully, it had this consolation prize, as described by Deadline: “The ‘Saltburn’ Effect: Prime Video Subs Swoon For Emerald Fennell’s Gothic Romance As Pic Cracks Top 10 Global Film Debuts, Racks Up 4B TikTok Views & Jacob Elordi Bath Water Candles Become A Thing.” And really, who needs another Oscar win you have 4 billion TikTok views and Jacob Elordi Bath Water candles. 

Anyway, if you have yet to see it, Saltburn is available to stream on Prime and Hulu/Disney+ in the US. 

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Have a great day, afternoon, evening, ‘cados!