Saltburn: The Tumblr-ification of Cinema

Compare news coverage from diverse sources around the world on a transparent platform driven by data. Try Ground News today and get 40% off your subscription: ground.news/broeydeschanel

Rich tiktokers dancing through their fancy homes suggests Fight Club levels of misunderstanding the movie.

"The implied film is better than the actual one" describes exactly how I felt about Don't worry darling

All the “shocking” stuff in Saltburn just feels juvenile. Like, just superficially gross without making me feel disturbed on any deeper level. It feels really safe

for a erotic thriller saltburn has zero rizz

I think saltburn suffered because of the director's blindness to her own privilege. She's a part of the upper upper class, and the tale of a middle class person lying about their finances to steal the wealth they covet is a nightmare of the elite, a scary story they tell each other. She can't reflect deeply on class, homoeroticism, or race because she doesn't want to lose her access to her privileges, and so her film is just as shallow.

"the implied film is better than the actual one" GIRL I PASSED OUT

On a shallower note, watching old movies makes me miss their lighting. Sometimes things that look good are fully visible...

This movie came off to me like the director watched talented Mr ripley and was horrified/ sympathized with Jude laws character and said, “I need to correct this”

“… which films are good and which films LOOK good.” Bam. You nailed it.

IMO Saltburn is not an Eat the Rich movie - it's a Fear the Poor (and the middle class) movie. It's not a movie About the rich For the middle class - it's a movie For the rich About the middle class. That's why, in this movie, the wealthy aren't horrible (and their horribleness is their naivete born from privilege), whereas the inflator is horrible for no apparent reason - the reason isn't necessary because the poor and middle class are always a threat to the rich regardless of their reasons for being so. It's a cautionary tale to the wealthy to distrust the middle class. But with enough familiar references and aesthetics as window dressing to confirm the middle classes assumption that they are the target audience (since they are in almost every case of popular cinema). Understanding that Fenell hails from the wealthy elite class makes it clear that she is writing about what she knows. So from the lens of Fear the Poor the entire movie makes so much sense.

my biggest issue with Saltburn was Oliver's motivations feel non-existant even after the reveal

I’m curious if the class differences between Minghella and Fennell also influence why Minghella was more interested in dissecting class dynamics. Fennell comes from high society herself- her 18th birthday was even documented by Tatler. I personally feel like she was never really willing to make the Cattons truly contemptible or dissect class dynamics because it would mean dissecting her own privilege, and frankly nepotism, in an unflattering way. She fell back on “it’s not a commentary, it’s a love story,” to further distance herself from dissecting her own privilege and class. Saltburn also lends an interesting perspective of how the upper classes view the lower classes, rather than the other way around. You get the impression, through Fennell, that the upper classes believe that society’s issue with them is solely due to their lifestyle being coveted, rather than issues of inequity. Not saying it isn’t coveted, but that the upper classes want to believe that’s the only true complaint and desire, when it’s not. It’s like Fennell was told this her entire life and she made a film based off of an upper class assumption.

To be fair, the joke about southern English people not knowing where Liverpool is, is actually a common joke in British comedy circles. Catherine Tate was making that joke 15 years ago.

I don’t think I would have minded Saltburn as a fun thriller so much if it didn’t constantly seem like it was trying to say something. They put so much almost commentary into it that it tricked people into thinking it had more depth than it did.

I think the biggest reason they wrote the film to take place in 2006/07ish was due to the pre-emergence of the social media era where it wasn't a given that everyone had facebook, myspace, etc. It would've made Oliver's background history a lot harder to track and a lot easier for someone to just take him at his word, especially since his surface level demeanor is diminutive and honest. I actually found that filmmaking decision pretty clever. I honestly thought Saltburn was fun; but I agree with a lot of your criticisms and was wishing for more of Oliver's backstory.

It is very telling that the first movie that Emerald Fennell, who had a super upper-class upbringing, makes about "eating the rich" or class in general is not that good at examining class. It kind of makes me concerned about her viewpoint of middle and working class people considering how she portrays both sides.

I actually think Saltburn is a movie for the masses disguised as something more ‘alternative’. Even the ‘disturbing’ scenes that caused it to go so viral are not particularly shocking for anyone who has seen any film out of the mainstream. Not to mention the plot is predictable and simple and the foreshadowing is glaringly obvious. The fact that everyone and their mother has seen it is also testament to that. It’s got the bones of an ambitious indie film that’s then been watered down and chopped up into bite size pieces so that the viewer will feel smarter without doing any work. An ambiguous ending might’ve saved it a little but it was so cut and dried that there wasn’t anything left to ponder.

My hot take on Saltburn is that it would have been much better if it ended after he f*cks the grave. The last act retcons the first two somewhat; it plays much more as a story about obsessive love than as this ‘infiltration’ narrative.

One take I saw from someone was that the “shocking” scenes for which the viewer is meant to feel disgusted - I.e., bathtub,, grave, “vampire” hook up - should be juxtaposed against the scenes in which we feel “social disgust” for Oliver - ordering his eggs over easy only to send them right back bc runny yolks hurt his tummy, no one remembering his name while singing happy birthday, the awkward as hell karaoke song.