Writer-director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) has done it again with Saltburn, a devilishly slick examination of class and power. Barry Keoghan stars as Oliver Quick, a new student at Oxford whose classification as a scholarship student along with his earnest desire to fit in makes him the object of derision by the “in” crowd. To his surprise, however, a charming and aristocratic classmate, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), sees something in him, taking him under his wing.
After Felix learns that Oliver’s father has died and that his mother is a terrible drunk, he asks him home for the holidays to his family’s estate, Saltburn, where he meets Felix’s eccentric father, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant); incredibly shallow mother, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike); sexually charged sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver); Elspeth’s pathetic hanger-on friend, Pamela (Carey Mulligan); and the Cattons’ American cousin, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), who attends Oxford with Felix and Oliver.
As Oliver settles into this new, lavish lifestyle of excess and privilege, we soon discover he’s not the helpless pleb he’s presented himself to be, and before too long, the story drifts into Cruel Intentions and The Talented Mr. Ripley territory. How far will Oliver’s obsession take him? (131 min.)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Jan 11-21, 2024.