geezer cinema/film fatales #192: saltburn (emerald fennell, 2023)

I kept reading that Saltburn was "divisive". I assumed that meant critics were split on its merits, or it was excessive in ways that would please some in the audience and piss off others. And now that I've seen it, yeah, it's excessive, and proud of it. I welcomed the excess. But I'm not sure of the purpose.

Writer/director Emerald Fennell gave us Promising Young Woman, an impressive and unsettling look at a woman taking revenge against men who assault women. At the time, I wrote, "Promising Young Woman makes you look forward to whatever Fennell comes up with next." And indeed, I was looking forward to Saltburn.

For most of the film, I thought I was watching a comedy. Not a ha-ha comedy, but an inspired look at the vapid lives of the rich. I'm all for portraits of the rich as insensitive dolts, and if Saltburn isn't exactly The Rules of the Game, nonetheless I was enjoying its Talented Mr. Ripley feel. Most of the rich people aren't evil ... they are just self-absorbed in the manner of those who don't have to worry about the commonplaces of everyday life. Barry Keoghan plays our representative into this world, Oliver Quick, who gets into Oxford on a scholarship and feels out of place among the rich kids. Through a variety of occurrences, Oliver ends up spending the summer at Saltburn, the family home of his classmate, Felix Catton.

I have no interest in spoilers ... just know that we, and Oliver, find out the "truth" about the rich Catton family. They are funny because they are unaware that they are funny. They are rich, so they can get away with being unaware. Fennell is expert at getting our hopes up that the Cattons will meet their comeuppance. And, to the extent Oliver is the impetus for that comeuppance, we root for him.

But the overall tone is uncertain, rather like Downton Abbey, which was always sympathetic to the workers but which nonetheless came down on the side of tradition. For Oliver becomes despicable himself by the end of the film, partly because he has always wanted to be like the rich. Fennell presents wealth as something to look down upon, then gives us a hero who embraces it, and doesn't appear to be ironic about it all. Fennell has said of the film's ending:

For those people who were still doubting whether they should be on Oliver’s side or whether he was our hero, the ending needed to have so much triumph, so much evil glee. It needed to be an act of territory-taking and desecration and joy ... My preoccupation is making an audience complicit, making them laugh when they shouldn’t maybe be laughing, making them squirm or feel complicated feelings. So the end needed to have that thing where you could not help but to be on Oliver’s side.

I agree with almost everything she says here. Making the audience complicit isn't easy, but it's worth the effort. But she fails in her ultimate desire for us to "be on Oliver's side". Because Oliver is, at best, no better than the rich people he wants to be. We like Robin Hood because he steals from the rich to give to the poor. Oliver takes from the rich and gives himself the prizes because he thinks being rich is a good thing.

Fennell's work, here and in Promising Young Thing (and in television work like Killing Eve) is audacious, and I still look forward to whatever she comes up with next. But Saltburn is a step down. Bonus points, though, for the use of "Rent" by the Pet Shop Boys.