Saltburn (2023)
British cinema has always had a complicated relationship with its own class system, from the kitchen-sink dramas of the 1960s through to the heritage pictures that followed, and Emerald Fennell's Saltburn arrives very much in that tradition, even as it does its best to tear the wallpaper off it. Released in 2023 and set largely within the walls of a grand country estate, the film uses the well-worn device of an outsider granted temporary access to extraordinary privilege, then asks what happens when that outsider refuses to remain temporary. It is the kind of premise that sits comfortably alongside a certain strand of British psychological fiction, the sort that owes a debt to writers like Patricia Highsmith and Evelyn Waugh, where social climbing and moral rot tend to go hand in hand. The result is a film that generated considerable word of mouth on both sides of the Atlantic, not least because of a handful of scenes that audiences found either audacious or baffling, often both at once.
Fennell was already a known quantity before cameras rolled on Saltburn. Her debut feature, Promising Young Woman (2020), won her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and announced a filmmaking voice that was unafraid of tonal whiplash, mixing dark comedy with genuine menace in ways that divided critics but stuck in the memory. Saltburn represents a step up in scale, produced through LuckyChap Entertainment (the production company co-founded by Margot Robbie), alongside MRC and Lie Still, and shot on 35mm film to give the estate sequences a lush, almost painterly quality. The decision to use film rather than digital was a deliberate one, lending the whole picture a warmth that sits in uneasy contrast with what unfolds inside it. Fennell wrote the screenplay herself, and the result is an original work rather than an adaptation, though the shadow of Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is difficult to entirely ignore when a story pivots on class envy and a charismatic young man with very little to lose. Fans of psychological thrillers with a literary flavour might also find it worth pairing with a look at Macca's take on Gone Girl (2014), another film that keeps its audience wrong-footed through careful manipulation of sympathy.
The cast assembled here is one of the film's genuine strengths. Barry Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, the Oxford student who finds himself folded into the gilded world of Felix Catton and his family. Keoghan has been quietly building one of the more interesting careers in contemporary Irish acting, with roles in The Banshees of Inisherin and Eternals demonstrating a range that runs from wounded vulnerability to something considerably harder to read. He is the kind of performer who can make stillness feel threatening, which is precisely what a role like this demands. Jacob Elordi takes on Felix, the charismatic aristocrat at the centre of Oliver's fixation, bringing a studied ease to a character who is equal parts warmth and obliviousness. Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant round out the Catton household as Felix's parents, and both are actors who understand exactly how much scenery they are being invited to consume. Pike in particular has spent the better part of a decade demonstrating that she has a gift for playing women who are simultaneously ridiculous and frightening, a quality that suits the film's broader satirical aims well.
Emerald Fennell’s 2023 psychological thriller Saltburn had everyone talking on it's release, and I have to admit it was an absolute rollercoaster of a film.
I found myself on a wild emotional pendulum, loving it, then not loving it, liking it, then not liking it. The premise is a brilliant hook: struggling to find his place at Oxford University, the enigmatic Oliver Quick finds himself becoming friends with charming and aristocratic Felix Catton after a chance encounter. When Felix invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s estate, for the summer, it sets the stage for the rest of the drama to unfold.
When it comes to the cast, Barry Keoghn is a fantastic actor, let’s make no debate about that at all; he anchors the film with a mesmerising, deeply unsettling performance. He’s ably supported by the brilliant Richard E Grant and Rosamund Pike, who chew the scenery with delightful, eccentric flair, making the ensemble mostly work beautifully, although I did find Archie Madekew’s turn as Felix to be one of the weaker performances of the bunch.
Narratively, the story was incredibly hard to predict right up until "the maze" scene. Once that pivotal moment hits, the narrative trajectory suddenly becomes really easy to predict, shifting the film from a mysterious psychological puzzle into something much more overt and deliberate.
What really elevates the picture, however, is Fennell’s razor-sharp commentary on elitism and class struggle. Scenes like the characters watching contemporary movies in a grand stately home or playing tennis in full dinner regalia are brilliantly observed and highlight the absurdity of the British upper class. That being said, the film isn't without its glaring missteps. Some of the most talked-about moments, like the bathtub scene and the grave scene, are probably the weirdest I've ever seen in cinema. I felt they were just shoved in there for pure shock value to encourage people to talk about the movie, rather than serving any genuine narrative purpose. This sense of excess culminates in a finale that, while undeniably shocking, is so farfetched that it tips right over into pure melodrama.
Despite the melodramatic climax and the occasional descent into gratuitous shock value, I genuinely did enjoy it. Saltburn is a visually stunning, deeply provocative, and highly entertaining piece of cinema that refuses to play by the rules. It’s a really good exploration of obsession, wealth, and the lengths people will go to in order to belong to a world that will never truly accept them.
I did enjoy it but with its uneven pacing and tonal shifts, it’s just short of great for me. Emerald Fennell has delivered a cracking, unforgettable summer of obsession that will absolutely have you talking long after the credits roll.
Saltburn sits in a curious position on the shelf, polished but uneven, genuinely provocative in places and gratuitous in others. It is the kind of film that will earn a strong recommendation from half the people you mention it to and a baffled shrug from the other half, which is arguably more interesting than universal approval. Fennell is clearly a filmmaker with a distinctive sensibility and the confidence to follow it wherever it leads, even when it leads somewhere the audience might not want to follow. Whether that confidence has fully matured into consistent storytelling is a question her future work will answer more clearly. For now, Saltburn is a film worth seeing for its performances, its visual craft, and the genuine unease it generates in its better moments. Those with a taste for films that use horror-adjacent tension in service of something more psychologically grounded might also enjoy Macca's thoughts on Sisters (1972), another film that weaponises discomfort in interesting ways. Saltburn is not quite the modern classic some have claimed, but it is far too alive to be dismissed. It gets under your skin, for better or worse.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2026-07-08
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Saltburn (2023) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Hulu · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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