10 Flawed Elements In Otherwise Flawless Films
6. Explain-It-All - Saltburn
Scourge of family Christmases across the Western world in 2023, Emerald Fennell's Saltburn proves that both the junior director and Amazon's MGM have the juice to get a really interesting and unconventional project over the line while still making all the right Hollywood-shaped moves.
Saltburn has Barry Keoghan's Oliver Quick make some seriously upper-class mates at Oxford, thanks to a compelling sob story that gets him swept away to their mansion for a summer of lounging, drinking, shagging, and debauchery. Now, the film may be obnoxious and Insta-aesthetic, but it's a fantastic piece of work (in both senses) that is only let down by Fennell's narrative inexperience.
Not quite realising the good thing she's got, the director takes all of the mysteries and complexities that have built up over the bulk of the film and spoon-feeds us the details of Oliver's hand in them. Not knowing how involved Oliver is in the deaths and misfortunes of his host family and their friends is the beating heart of the movie, and to let us figure it out for ourselves would have been far stronger than a five-minute Poirot-esque, ta-da! montage of whodunnit, how, and why. It's just not that kind of film.