When I saw the trailer for Saltburn I thought to myself this film is made for me. It instantly had overtones of one of my all time favourite novels/tv series ‘Brideshead Revisited’ in which, amongst many plot lines, a middle class boy falls in love with the son of an aristocratic family while at Oxford. It also stars one of the most iconically sexy actors today Aussie Jacob Elordi, of Euphoria fame, as well as a rising critical darling Barry Keoghan. Looks of exquisite longing and sexual tension peppered a supporting cast of some of my fav actors: Richard E Grant and Rosamund Pike, all of whom gave hilarious unhinged performances. Further it is directed by Emerald Fennell who directed the close to great ‘Promising Young Woman’.

With so much going for it, it frustratingly, despite being very entertaining, shocking, and uber sexual ends in such a bombastic and cartoonish way that it’s overall diminished. The same criticism I had of ‘Promising Young Woman’, namely that the film couldn’t stick the landing in its ending I had to an even more egregious degree with ‘Saltburn’. I’m not sure if it is meant to be an intentional stylistic choice but in both films towards the climax, precisely when the most profound meaning is meant to dawn, it awkwardly veers from subtly and realism into a kind of over-the-top bombast and ridiculousness.

Fennell is a great provocateur who wants to initiate important discussions of hot button issues such as sexuality, feminism, the class system and the power of white men. And yet despite shocking and seducing us in certain scenes, the film ultimately has very surface level critiques about the out of touch eccentric upper class and the bitter everyone else. Worn out obvious metaphors made me eye roll a few times. With such lush imagery, manic performances, funny moments and raw transgressive lust, it is painful that the film has nothing new or interesting to say about it all. A pastiche of ‘Brideshead Revisited’, ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, ‘La Dolce Vita’ and ‘The Great Beauty’ that gets the evocative imagery right but misses the subtle power. Great art subtly suggests with strangeness profound truths that gnaw at our universal human condition, mediocre art spells out with a heavy hand and only reaches the surface shallow depths. I hope that as Fennell grows in confidence as a filmmaker she can match her obvious talent for provoking, entertaining and vivid visual storytelling with greater assured things to say. 7/10