Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
Rated 1.8 / 5 from 2 logs on Katalog
I know very little about the development of this movie and how it came to be but I’m going to presume an excess of shitfuckery went down along the way. It’s the only explanation I could come up with for how genuinely confused it was about what it was saying. On one hand, it starts off as more or less typical Talented Mr Ripley story, with hamfisted class critique. I excused the lack of subtlety because I enjoyed the campy style and the balls-to-the-walls performances. Then the movie decided to abandon all that to become this shock piece that was all over the place and ridiculous. By the end of it the critique of the heritable wealthy turns into a vague “this is what happens when you don’t keep a firm boot on the neck of the savages and let them into your home” with a dash of “listen, kids, be careful who you befriend because that sweet boy you like might be a psychopath”. I like the clothes, though. And the camera work. It was cute.
The movie follows Oliver Quick, a scholarship Oxford student who doesn't fit in with the upper-class atmosphere and has no friends. He is befriended by Felix Catton, a wealthy student who ends up inviting him to his family's house. Oliver just starts being a little freak and eventually murders everyone. The movie supposedly deals with themes of class disparity, obsessiveness, ingenuity in service of manipulation, and a love-hate relationship towards money and those who come from privilege, but these ideas are never examined in depth, as in similar movies where such themes have been expressed much more eloquently (The Talented Mr. Ripley comes to mind immediately). Regardless of all the strange and disturbing things happening on screen, I just felt like the movie lacks a general prevailing message of any kind. Oliver just does things; he's insane, and that's it. The movie heavily relies on visuals, which are stunning, to be sure, but the story itself is kind of...meh. The majority of scenes just felt like shock value more than anything else, and by the second half of the movie, the storyline just becomes so predictable—not the scenes themselves, like I said, those are freaking weird—but the general storyline for sure. The big reveal at the end surprised no one.😂 Just....what was the point of this?
It appears that this movie is less interested in exposing its characters obsession with old money aesthetic aesthetic and elitist habit but falls in love with it itself, chasing one iCoNiC shot after another, ultimately retaining too little critical distance.
Honestly what was the fucking point of this film. But wonderful cinematography.
had a good time, then a poor time, then a good time, then a poor time, then a good time watching this, if that makes sense? enjoyed a lot and disliked a lot. no cap if i see one more flashback montage reveal of the deaths i swear to god some banger scenes and soundtrack and ultimately, the only thing that matters, is that the bourgeoisie gets their comeuppance
