Saltburn is “mid”
Mikaela Delos Santos, Publishing Editor, Arroy (AJ) Jacob, Web Editor |
Not to be the party poopers, but… Saltburn (2023) could be better. Sure, it’s cinematographically pleasing, and so is Jacob Elordi. But it’s not the new American Psycho (2000) that some folks claim it is. And we’ll tell you why.
Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, the movie was released on Nov.22 and premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival. Slowly, Saltburn trickled its way into theatres towards the end of 2023. According to Vulture, while Fennell is in the early phases of her career, “It feels fair to say that her more irritating habit as a writer is a fondness for button-pushing last acts that undermine all the character building that’s come before.” And we agree.
What was the point of Pamela?
Speaking of character building— the film stars Carrey Mulligan, an esteemed actress with many great roles. You’ve seen her portray Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (2013) and Irene in Drive (2011). In Saltburn, she portrays Pamela as a helpless recovering addict leeching off the Catton family’s wealth, shelter, and food. She is evidently a nuisance.
But what was the point of having Pamela around? In our discussion, we figured that it could represent being the toy poodle that the wealthy family (The Catton’s) likes to play around with. While that symbolism portrays relevant messaging, Fennell should have given more screen time than rushing her to her disposal as a character. You’ve got such a great actress for the role, yet she was only given five minutes of screen time? There’s so much potential for Pamela to give us context into what lies ahead for the Cattons’ given Oliver’s arrival. Yet, we were left wondering why Fennell even bothered to put Mulligan in if she wouldn’t be a big part of the story. It felt as if Fennell needed to fit Mulligan in somewhere and made Pamela a part of the story as a last-minute addition.
Those scenes…
You know which ones. Let’s first talk about the bathtub scene. To run it back, the scene happens after Oliver has sex with Venetia while she is on her period (no judgment from us here). Since Oliver and Felix share the same bathroom, Oliver ends up catching Felix pleasuring himself in the bathtub. Once Felix finally goes to bed, Oliver creeps into the bathtub and slurps up the remains left in Felix’s bath water.
At this point in the movie, we are left thinking that this is because of Oliver’s possible suggestive liking for Felix. But, at the movie’s end, Oliver says that he doesn’t even like Felix in that way. So what was the reason? Although, to be fair, who knows what’s going on in that head of his?
Now, the graveyard scene.
Business Insider states, “Barry Keoghan (Oliver) has revealed that one of the most talked about scenes in Saltburn did not actually appear in the film’s original script and was improvised on the day of shooting.”
Keoghan then says, “On paper, he wasn’t written to do that,” Keoghan said. “But I wanted to see what actually happened, where I would take it. I wanted to be confused and let my body lead the way. What am I doing? How can I get closer?”
“It’s trying to find that new level of obsession. Trying to level up on the obsession,” he added. “It’s quite sad because he didn’t even know what to do. He’s a lost boy who’s confused and doesn’t know what he’s chasing.”
We can see his reasoning. Really, we do! But we think his confusion should have been more evident to the audience. We should have understood better that he suffered from inner turmoil between winning Felix’s affection and taking Saltburn for himself.
One of the key components of good story-telling is introducing the main character’s motivations early in the plot. Fennel should have leaned into that gimmick so the audience could understand what Oliver wanted with Felix and Saltburn.
Stop underestimating the audience
We appreciate the way Fennel tried to exemplify Oliver’s psychopathic tendencies. But these concepts should have been more prevalent earlier in the film. The first 30 minutes of the film felt long-winded and uninterestingly unimportant.
What feels like a psychotic twist at the film’s end felt like a last-minute attempt for Fennel to pull in a wow factor. Yes, audiences talk about the film after leaving the theatre, but not in a positive light. This feeling especially stems in the ending scene where Oliver is mindlessly typing on his computer when Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) walks into the cafe — it is impossible to believe that Oliver had known she was going to enter at the right time and moment without any sort of background context to the place itself and the timing of the situation.
It feels as though Fennell thinks the audience wouldn’t notice a rushed ending and sudden tie-ins like this, just like with the graveyard scene and Pamela’s character. We have seen this repeatedly in many Hollywood films, and in every case, it leaves the audience with a sour aftertaste.
Unfortunately, Saltburn is no exception.
