I can’t lie, I was terrified to watch Saltburn – I had heard a very mixed bunch of reviews calling the film messed up and super weird and whilst it was incredibly weird it was also wonderful.
I’ve been reflecting on the film for a few days and whilst narratively it is not perfect – the film itself just has a charm that made me fall in love with it, in fact I found myself increasing my Letterboxd rating a day later (and probably annoying all my friends by constantly talking about it).
Visually, this film is stunning shot in 4:3 to go hand in hand with the films voyeuristic approach and to give the audience the feel of watching the family through a dollhouse but also to fully capture the stunning setting of the film. To follow this, every shot is meticulously planned out, in an interview with Emerald Fennel she mentions how if you paused any shot you should be able to notice the small details which really came across in the film – honestly I would’ve watched it just for these beautiful visuals.
Moving on, another perfect factor to this film was the casting, Barry Keoghan is just so good at playing insane people – from set interviews some of his scenes were improvised which just proves that point. Jacob Elordi is also so good and plays the nice guy role so well (I must also add his British accent is pretty good), it makes his character so loveable (which I guess is the point). Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant are so funny and Archie Madekwe, Alison Oliver and Carey Mulligan are all amazing – making the perfect awkward, loving and dysfunctional family. I honestly can’t imagine anyone else in these roles.
Plot wise – unfortunately I did spoil the plot for myself as I scared myself too much and researched before (I can’t stand too much gore or scary stuff) but I was with a friend who could see where it was going and it did feel somewhat predictable however was still fun to watch and the three acts were done very well. You may have heard about the ~strange~ scenes.. and they definitely are strange but it is there for the shock factor and add to the fact Oliver is actually insane and not just a slight stalker.
As a whole, I would recomend Saltburn, its a beautifully weird and wonderful film, whilst it is by no means perfect it was fun and that’s what I prefer in a film – it lingers in your mind after and is a very interesting film to discuss with others.
Watch the trailer here:
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/rosieee/
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