I love a movie about nothing. The indescribable genre of Nothing Really Happens films that are purely vibe fodder.
Saltburn, to me, falls into this category, where there’s a plot and there are characters but no motive. Oliver’s obsession is driven not by revenge or vindication but by a rather jealous need to own what the Cattons have. This is a movie where nothing happens to me because I don’t know what could have led to Oliver causing so much havoc, and honestly, I liked it that way.
Saltburn fits quite snuggly into this genre, except it’s not supposed to. I’m not sure what genre it’s supposed to be, but officially, it’s an erotic thriller. Despite Emerald Fenelle’s refusal of Saltburn’s inspirations, the film itself stands on the classics; films like Talented Mr. Ripley and Brideshead Revisited share similar themes and ideas. But most importantly, this category of media has an almost excessive amount of onus on the power of obsession.
In the film, Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is all the things we’ve been told that a loner in college would be: book smart, probably poor, socially inept, and a little obsessed with Oxford’s golden boy, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). It’s a meet-cute sort of affair - Felix’s bike tire gets punctured and Oliver is riding in on his bike just in time to offer it to Felix, who surprisingly kisses Oliver’s bike helmet, deeming him his ‘lifesaver’.
The rest from then on is history, and Oliver’s integration into Felix’s Oxford entourage is portrayed in a sun-drenched filter, small stuffy dorm rooms, and a series of events that ultimately lead to Felix inviting Oliver to his home, the titular Saltburn.
The summer in Saltburn begins as you’d expect - Oliver’s wonder-filled gazes at the grandiose interior and the wide-scale gardens that shouldn’t be owned by one person. The curious namedrops of kings and poets and playwrights inevitably play into what we’re all beginning to think by this point: rich people aren’t real.
But Oliver thinks otherwise. He’s infatuated with not just the physical brilliance of Saltburn, but also the inhabitants of it - Elsbeth, a neurotic woman and Felix’s mother. Farleigh, Felix’s best friend. Venetia, Felix’s sister, and Felix himself. Peculiar and snobbish in nature, the four of them are the heart of Saltburn, and Oliver manages to ruin all of them in one, intoxicating summer.
Saltburn has garnered a lot of opinions, and as a film that serves as what some might call ‘Oscar bait’, no one is surprised. While I enjoyed the movie, a reveal towards the end felt unnecessary for me. The intrigue of how involved Oliver had to be in the demise of the family kept me contained within the film’s 4x3 aspect ratio. His obsession was fascinating and at times (most of the time) a perverse performance, and that is the issue people had with it. It felt like maybe too much of a performance. In essence, a film about obsession will never fail to intrigue me, because I’m always willing to see how far someone will go for something they crave. Some scenes made me deeply uncomfortable but as sick as it sounds, I liked that. I would rather that than be bored.
The story is a string of subversions, moments we expect, and particular scenes that I personally never want to watch again (bathwater scene I’m looking at you), but overall it was a movie about vibes with a bit of thriller and a lot of homoeroticism.