Thinking that Saltburn was incredible

[jennylamb1]

That really. What an amazing, surprising and beautifully made film. Excellent acting, great music and a real twist at the end. 🙂

Utterly fucked up and totally compelling.

Yes I agree!

I enjoyed it, not really don't understand the hype about how 'weird' it is.

I've seen much weirder

It was fine

I preferred the simmering tension of The Talented Mr Ripley, which is one of the strong influences on Saltburn. Fennell is very talented, no doubt, but needs to pull together her 3rd acts more tautly and without endless explication.
Fennell’s given an interview saying she doesn’t like subtlety in her formal approach to film. That’s fine, but going for viscerality and shocks while at the same time slackening the narrative tension doesn’t quite work. Also Keoghan was directed to play it too creepy from the start. But overall, it’s an intriguing follow up to PYW.

Yes, I was slightly disappointed that the weird wasn’t weirder too. Not sure what that says about me😳😂 Really enjoyed it though.

I agree that it wasn't really weird enough in the end. I liked that he killed them all, that was fine, but really? Kill the rich just to run around their houses to good music? I mean, I guess I respect that, and I wish him well, but it wasn't weird enough if it wanted to be a weird movie.

It was a bit like a Gossip Girl "cover" of Ripley. And I enjoyed it tremendously on that basis! But it felt like a good external examiner (to run with the academic theme in it) could have tightened it up for Fennell a lot.

I think he actually hated them all and everything they stood for. So inheriting the house was kind of a fuck you to them. He'd taken what was theirs and now he's dancing around it naked. I couldn't see him staying there though, as he was told by Farleigh he wasn't cut out for that life.

He didn't hate them,he wanted to be them and knew he never would would. (imo)

Noooo I think the first half suggests that he wants to be one of them, but one by one we see what ghastly people they are and how they “deserve” to die and how he has seen through them and hated them from the start. He was laying the groundwork for becoming Elspeth’s lover very early on (for which she had to be a widow) and he never needed Felix’s charity. Felix accidentally outing him was an accident that just hastened the action, I think, but it didn’t MAKE the action.

I think the only vulnerability he ever really shows is the exaggerated stories of his success he was telling his parents, when plainly they were thrilled that he went to Oxford at all. It shows that he couldn’t measure his emotions or responses like a normal person at all. He can’t just tell them he’s doing fine at Oxford, he must be m1 captain! Scholar! Best! He can’t just think Felix is an arrogant dick, he has to kill him and his family and take his house.

I agree with that about Farleigh and the house and it’s interesting that he never tries to hurt Farleigh, just remove him from the house. He knows they’re in the same boat, vulnerable and patronised by the mindless rich, but F can’t strike back. I liked Farleigh a lot - he was such a prick at the start, but by the end you didn’t feel disgusted by him, just very very sad.

He wanted to BE them, become them, consume them, hence the bathwater slurping, grave shagging and sex with the sister.

Not been so entertained by a film for years! 🤣

I loved it. Thought it was Brideshead Revisited + The Talented Me Ripley. + Parasite! 😂

Agree that it was a brilliant film, but they fucked up with the death at the end.

I liked it a lot but it was VERY derivative (Brideshead / TMR) and literary referances bit heavy handed.

Also thought the Oliver character was v underdeveloped - I loved the bit where he went home to his parents but that wasn't really explored. Couldn't work out if that was to make him totally enigmatic or EF just couldn't manage depth.

Also - Do people really live like that anymore (well in the 00s). I know some people with money (not me!!) and some "old money" families but they couldn't afford an estate like this on family money alone. We must be talking about a handful of people in the UK. There's obviously plenty of newer money kicking about and your Michelle Moane types but that wasn't what this was about. It felt stangely anachronistic which jarred a bit.

Good reminder about Parasite - now that really did hold some surprises & was an excellent film!

I think that's only if you know what it is before you watch it.

I'd never heard of it when I saw it and thought it was going to be a shit Amazon serial. I thought it was great mainly because I recognise the character of Felix and thought that was brilliantly well observed.
Not a fan of the body count but loved how well it was shot and the controversial scenes were something new.

I have slightly mixed feelings. OTOH it is really good cinema and the Merseyside lad with the scholarship at Oxford was brilliantly sinister, and the posh tall gangly lad - Felix - was gorgeous. The mum - Rosamund Pike is beautiful. The characters are great and it's really good, but several of the scenes give me the collywobbles. Drinking Felix's bathwater, jerking off the half brother in bed, the period sex.

Kind of mesmerising but would probably never watch it again.

@doyouknowwhatimean yes, there are more than a few who do live like that. You need to read more Tatler 😅i spent a student summer once with a dickhead ex sadly not as handsome nor charming as Felix, but with a similar moneyed family, even down to the slightly boho sister and bonkers parents. The way the privilege was portrayed was bang on, especially as seen through Oliver's eyes.
I would have been quite happy with the film carrying on that way without Oliver's machinations, but appreciate that wouldn't have thrilled everyone quite as much as it did me; I'm a massive social class nerd so would have loved this to have been the entire premise of the film.

I didn't like it. Gave me the creeps. I know that's kind of the point but some of the scenes have stayed with me in a bad way and they're grotesque. Just not my cup of tea but can see why some people like it.

I just was confused by Oliver's seemingly sudden ability to control everyone through sex. Dh and I joked that he must have ingested some sort of sexual power from the jizzy bath water.

It looked great. The parents were fantastic.
Didn't think much of the Irish guy. He mumbled too much and his accent was all over the place.
It was trying too hard to shock.

What happened to Pamela? I wasn't sure of the point of her character, she seemed to just disappear (maybe I missed something). Really enjoyed it and thought Oliver was chilling.

‘Poor dear Pamela’ went back to her bedsit (she did not want to go) and died. I think the character killed herself but I’m not sure.

It was mentioned by the mother almost as an afterthought when they were all sitting together in one room watching tv.

(Sorry, I’ve forgotten all the characters’ names except for Pamela and Felix and Oliver).

I think the point with Pamela was that she was clearly hugely vulnerable and brittle but they just wanted rid of her and didn't really care when she died. The family though hugely entertaining set up their endings as in some way morally acceptable because they were so superior, superficial and vacuous as human beings.

I was put off watching it for a bit for two reasons. I'd heard about a few scenes and didn't think it would be my cup of tea. Mostly though I am a massive inverted snob, I think one of the worst things about the UK is how so much of our cultural output, from TVs, Movies, and music to journalism and the news we are exposed to, even the politicians we get, are dominated by such a narrow strata of society. So, the idea of watching another bunch of super poshos didn't strike me as something I'd enjoy.

Last week though I was at a loose end and it was there on Amazon Prime so I thought I'd watch it for a few minutes to see how it was because I like Barry Keoghan and I was bowled over by Promising Young Woman.

I am glad I gave it a chance, I loved it. As others have said it has echoes of Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr Ripley and Parasite. I'd also add Brimstone and Treacle and the recent adaptation of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.

The shocking scenes aren't that shocking if you've seen a lot of movies from around the world.

I loved how the movie managed the trick of having such an unlikeable protagonist who you were still rooting for at the end of the film, (at least I was)

The super poshos were sufficiently awful for my own prejudices to be happily confirmed.

Can't wait to see what she does next.