Getting Lost In Saltburn
Cover Image Courtesy: IMDB
Emerald Fennell’s sophomore film, Saltburn, has had the media in a tight chokehold following its release this past November. The film is a brilliantly dark and distorted deep dive into extravagance, desire, and revenge starring the otherworldly Barry Keoghan and inexplicably charming Jacob Elordi. It’s a two-hour-long, deliciously addictive affair serving an alluring look into the lengths one will go to obtain status and their deepest, darkest desires.
In a nutshell, Saltburn is a 2000s period piece set in Oxford and Northamptonshire, England. The film surveys the budding friendship between Oliver Quick and Felix Catton. While Oliver is a scholarship student struggling to fit in, Felix is one of his popular, aristocratic peers. By the end of the school year, Felix’s charitable heart invites Oliver to spend the summer at his eccentric family’s estate in Saltburn after sympathizing with his living situation and the sudden death of his father. As Oliver’s stay in Saltburn progresses, so does his obsession with Felix and his desire to attain his lifestyle and luxury. The longer Oliver stays, the more twisted the plot and storyline becomes.
The film is utterly unapologetic, pushes boundaries, and walks a fine line that intertwines aspects of an erotic comedy with those of a psychological thriller. The film's cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, helped achieve this mood by setting out to immerse the audience in the story through the use of stunning imagery. Fennell explained how “Everything had to have a bit of roughness, a bit of ugliness. Part of something being perfect for this film meant that it was not completely perfect.” Juxtaposing the beautiful with the grotesque was essential to developing the demeanor of the film.
Saltburn is a place we’ve all dreamt about. A place where your eggs are prepared to your liking each morning, where you spend your days tanning in tall, endless fields of grass, and where you can escape reality, becoming an idealistic version of yourself. However, like most things in life, appearances can be deceiving. Beneath the glamorous lifestyle and eccentric color that casts a cloud over Saltburn is a dark and deviant maze of murderous desire and obsession where mental illness runs rampant.
Image Courtesy of: IMDB
Evidently, after watching or hearing about the film, Saltburn invokes an internal struggle within the viewer where you like what you see aesthetically but you also don’t like it, or maybe you feel slightly bad or uncomfortable for liking it. It’s a film about our obsession with beauty and ability to fetishize the things in life we want to acquire. Aside from the film's complex nature and gorgeous cinematography, it's the collective group of ensembles that ultimately spark the drama and allure that has made Saltburn so renowned amongst the media and cinema community.
Of course, there’s the film's anti-villain and unreliable narrator, Oliver Quick; a seemingly harmless young man on the surface, who, beneath his awkwardness and obvious class distinctions, is driven by darkness. Oliver is much more than the freak we see on screen; he’s in some ways a sort of feeling too. Perhaps he represents the type of feeling that most people try to swallow or keep buried away in the depths of their minds. The reason you heard gasps in the theater as his lips surfaced the bathtub drain or gave into his vampiric desires is because Oliver does what most people's instincts and intuitions stop them from doing. He is the intrusive thoughts we neglect to acknowledge and pretend never existed. While we bury these troubling thoughts, Oliver gives in to them. Though, it isn’t just Oliver who drives the film along its twisted yet tasteful journey.
Image Courtesy of: IMDB
There’s also Felix, who is quite literally the opposite of Oliver. He’s tall, rich, and hot, making up for his lack of intelligence. Then there’s Venitia, Felix’s sister, whose troubled state of mind and complicated relationship with food and control lead her to constantly seek the approval of the male gaze. Farleigh is one of the Catton cousins who is queer, judgemental, and ultimately just as much an outsider as Oliver. And, of course, the Catton parents, Sir James and Elspeth, who are both extremely out of touch with reality.
Maybe you relate to a certain character, or a part of them, in a particular way. Maybe at the end of the film you found yourself longing for more as the credits rolled. Or maybe you found the entire experience extremely disturbing and strange. Regardless of how the film left you feeling, we can all find parts of ourselves in Saltburn. As Emerald Fennell once said, “The thing is, we’re all disgusting perverts, aren’t we?”
Strike Out,
Tasha Karam
Edited By: Ethan Cox and Kate Graham
Los Angeles
Tasha Karam is a part of the writing team for Strike Magazine based in Los Angeles. When it comes to writing, her friends and the fictional characters in books and films are her muse. She likes to spend her free time at the beach, a nearby flea market, or reading in a coffee shop. You can reach her via email at natashagavik@gmail.com or on Instagram @tashakaram.
