Saturday, May 25, 2024

Saltburn (2023)

IMDb plot summary: A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family's sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.
Directed by Emerald Fennell. Starring Berry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, and Rosamund Pike.

Saltburn is a dark satire starring Barry Keoghan as a college graduate with a rough past who goes to stay with his college friend's elaborate mansion for the summer, only for relationships to get very twisted very quickly. I'm not going to give any more detail than that, as seeing how the plot unwinds is half the fun. This taps into the same kind of weird over-the-top delight as watching a trashy reality show, except of course this gets to go further and be more ridiculous due to being fictional. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's kind of mesmerizing. The long closing dance number especially is one of the most memorable ending sequences I've seen in a while. The movie is a little overlong, however -- it ramps up a whole bunch near the end and feels like it's taken forever to get there. If a good 20 minutes or so had been shaved from the first hour, I'd have enjoyed this a whole lot more. Still a wild ride that I had a pretty good time.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Saltburn > The Invention of Lying
Saltburn < Key Largo
Saltburn < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Saltburn > Imitation of Life
Saltburn > How to Marry a Millionaire
Saltburn > I Saw the Devil
Saltburn < Disney's Newsies the Broadway Musical
Saltburn > Stalag 17
Saltburn > Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Saltburn > Creation
Saltburn < A Scanner Darkly
Final spot: #1495 out of 3895, or 62%.

No comments: