I saw Saltburn at the BFI London Film Festival – and this is my honest review

Despite being a film journalist for nearly ten years, this is my first time attending the BFI London Film Festival. LFF is one of the biggest, most exciting film festivals around the world – and it’s actually quite overwhelming. With more than 165 feature films screening over the 11-day festival, it’s hard to know where to start – but the festival’s opening Saltburn Gala seems as good a place as any. Here is my honest review of the new Emerald Fennell movie…

Heading into the Picturehouse in Leicester Square at the crack of dawn (okay, 8.15am) to join a long line of sleepy but enthusiastic media representatives, I was immediately struck by the friendliness of the occasion. Like Barbie and Oppenheimer becoming cinematic events this year, it’s a nice reminder that cinema can be a collective experience – and I think it makes the experience more fun when you bounce off your peers’ reactions to what’s on the big screen. as well as the plot itself.

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In my case, much of my enjoyment of Saltburn’s 131-minute running time was thanks to the smiling man two rows in front of me who looked like he was enjoying himself immensely – before the film moved to its inevitably disastrous conclusion – and laughing a lot. paused.

Jacob Elordi stars in Saltburn

The film, directed by Emerald Fennell of A Promising Young Woman , starts out quite predictably, or so you’d think. Bespectacled scholarship boy Oliver (Barry Keoghan) starts at Oxford, and despite his clear intelligence, struggles to bond with his teacher or peers, managing to make only one friend, a fiery math prodigy.

Lacking other options, Oliver spends time with him as he longs to befriend the squirmy and charming rich guy Felix (played with just the right amount of ‘gap yah’ aplomb by 2023 festival favorite Jacob Elordi).

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Oliver and Fairley at Oxford in Saltburn

1. Saltburn
2. Bicycle riders
3. May December
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. All of us strangers
6. Zone of interest
7. One life
8. Chicken Run 2
9. Poor people
10. The kitchen

Finally finding “in” with the cool kids, Oliver and Felix bond over Oliver’s difficult upbringing, and the latter eventually invites Oliver to stay with the family at their spectacular estate for the summer. What has been shared as a coming-of-age story about two friends is packed with chilling moments – and that’s before we’ve even set foot in Saltburn.

Indeed, while at first glance you might think this is the start of an Evelyn Waugh-inspired mess, there are certainly plenty of nods to Brideshead Revisited, from Charles recounting his summer in the stately home to his wide-eyed arrival at Felix’s family home, but this is not charming a trip to the land of the very rich.

The sense of uneasiness throughout the film, from Oliver’s borderline disturbing crush on Felix to his attempts to fit into high society, only deepens as Oliver becomes more and more wrapped up in Felix’s world.

The beauty of the house, as well as the closeness of Felix and Oliver, is often offset by moments of meanness; the vomit splattered on the soap dish in the sink, the inside of the toilet bowl, the carved stone stuck in the dirt at the river’s edge – all are constant reminders of the vileness that lurks beneath the surface of this idyllic place.

I especially enjoyed every time Felix’s no-nonsense family appeared in a scene; his mother Elspeth (played impeccably by Rosamund Pike), his father Sir James (Richard E Grant) and his ‘masochistic’ sister, Talking With Friends star Alison Oliver. A particular highlight is their mindlessly callous (but unfailingly polite) treatment of their guest Pamela (Carey Mulligan), which gives us plenty of insight into the darkness behind the facade of magnanimity – teasing Oliver with his fate if he steps a toe in line with these people.

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Part of the discomfort of watching Saltburn is that, like Oliver, you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop – and maybe I should have predicted how the family’s perfect summer would come crashing down – but I really didn’t. There are also moments of jaw-dropping darkness from time to time, so much so that during one scene I had to close my eyes due to the second-hand horror of what I was witnessing – and I love a good horror film.

As for the bottom line? Not wanting to give anything away, I’ll just say that I’m not sure I know exactly what message this movie was trying to convey to its audience – but much like how the family feels about Pamela after she’s kicked out of their home, who really cares? It is a psychological thriller that lives up to its name and will certainly be talked about a lot after its cinema distribution in November.

Categories: Entertaintment
Source: HIS Education