Defending 'Saltburn': Is the criticism of director Emerald Fennell sexist?

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۲۰۲۳ has been an incredible year for films. 

As you can read in Euronews Culture's annual round-up of the Best Movies of the Year, the list is replete with dazzling new classics. From blockbusting duo Barbie and Oppenheimer putting people’s butts back in cinemas for quality films again, to the glut of Cannes-darling dramas like Anatomy of a Fall and our favourite of the year, Past Lives, there was truly something for everyone.

There was another film released this year that was clearly aiming for the plaudits levelled at those I just mentioned: Emerald Fennell’s second film, Saltburn, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, before getting a wide release in November. 

The black comedy had award buzz in its sights, but was met by a divisive audience. But did it earn its derision, or was it unfairly maligned on account of its director?

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The cast is a veritable hit list of who’s hot right now. Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jacob Elordi (‘Euphoria’, Priscilla) are joined by established talents like Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant and Carey Mulligan.

Set in 2007, Saltburn follows working-class Oxford University student Oliver Quick (Keoghan, playing another one of his lil’ weirdos) as he feels out of place in the aristocratic circles he’s surrounded by. Everything changes for him when the beautiful, charismatic Felix Catton (Elordi, the hottest a man has ever looked) takes Oliver under his wing and invites him back to his family estate for the summer.

As Oliver befriends Felix’s extended family, events take a turn. 

(Warning: Spoilers ahead) 

Homoerotisicm meets horror as Oliver’s sexual obsession for Felix transcends into a barbarous quasi-murder spree that leaves the entire Catton family dead and Oliver with the keys to the kingdom.

Reviews for the film have been polarised. 

Some love the visual splendour of the film and its gleefully shocking imagery.

"ADVERTISEMENT2023 has been an incredible year for films. As you can read in Euronews Culture's annual round-up of the Best Movies of the Year, the list is replete with dazzling new classics"Others tore it apart for its gossamer-thin themes hidden under a veneer of faux-barbarism. Either you were in the camp that thought it was a riot, or you found it a muddled, somewhat gross entry into the eat-the-rich genre bucket.

Jacob Elordi... I'd drink his bathwater

Warner Bros.

For my part, I found the suggestion that it was an eat-the-rich film of the likes of last year’s The Menu and Triangle of Sadness to be inaccurate. The halfway revelation that Oliver has lied about his deprived working-class roots and instead has spurned a happy middle-class family, while the Cattons, though somewhat tone-deaf, are a mostly nice group of people, make the overarching plot the opposite genre. _Saltburn_’s theme is the upper classes not fearing the social-climbing lower classes enough.

Whether Fennell meant that message is unclear.

The absurdly posh Fennell – whose 18th birthday was documented by Tatler – is obviously more besotted with those of her own class, hence her development of the Cattons and the utter void that surrounds Oliver. Even still, just because the film’s politics are gross – which they are – that doesn’t make the film bad. Nor does it make it uninteresting.

For the film to have truly worked, we would need to know more about Oliver and his motivations. As it stands, it’s a perfume advert for a wealthy family (again, Elordi is so fit in this) that turns cruel without really having all that much to say about cruelty.

While critics that have pointed out this slight thinness to the plot are right to, I feel a large amount of the criticism levelled at the film was purely for its undoubtedly conservative undercurrent. I won’t disagree that it isn’t an unpleasant theme to run through the film, but I think many commentators missed out on the sheer enjoyability of the film.

It’s not perfect by any lengths, but Saltburn is a fun, sexy, gross, and beautifully shot film.

"But did it earn its derision, or was it unfairly maligned on account of its director?Lovers, Bottoms and French cooking: Here are the best movies of 2023Which woman has the most Oscar wins? The cast is a veritable hit list of who’s hot right now"The dialogue zips, the setting is stunning, and the acting is brilliant. Much as it pains me to defend Fennell – whose previous film Promising Young Woman was obscenely overrated – I can’t help but feel that many critics have missed what makes her an interesting filmmaker.

Emerald Fennell being Emerald Fennell at the London Film Festival

Vianney Le Caer/۲۰۲۳ Invision

Much like other contemporary stylist directors like Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, and Christopher Nolan, Fennell puts the image above everything. Yet while those three male directors are praised for their gorgeous cinematography despite depthless plots, Fennell has been punished. It reeks of a double standard.

Tarantino is the filmmaker I think Fennell is most like. Her two films have tackled big topics (classism and sexual violence) much like Tarantino has tackled the Holocaust and the slave trade (Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained).

Both come up lacking in insight into these huge themes, but they create visually arresting films that fly by on entertaining dialogue and impressive set pieces.

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Obviously, Tarantino isn’t without his detractors, particularly for his use of race and violence in film. Yet, he’s generally loved by the film community because his commitment to making enjoyable films supersedes a need for him to make a greater intellectual point. It’s a generosity not afforded to Fennell.

Similarly, I’m reminded of Fincher’s ۲۰۲۳ film The Killer. It features in our top films of the year list, but I’m no fan. While it attempts to skewer the assassin genre film, I found it lacked enough personality to say anything that meaningful.

"Either you were in the camp that thought it was a riot, or you found it a muddled, somewhat gross entry into the eat-the-rich genre bucket.Jacob Elordi.."However, it has been praised for Fincher’s trademark visual flair and its light reversal on genre tropes.

Compare The Killer to Lynne Ramsay’s criminally underrated ۲۰۱۷ film You Were Never Really Here. Ramsay’s spin on the assassin genre is no less brutal in its violence than Fincher’s, nor is it any less stylised. Yet her take is genuinely interested in the psychology behind a killer. Her assassin (Joaquin Phoenix) is miles more interesting as he grapples with the trauma that shaped him than Fincher’s dead-eyed killer (Michael Fassbender). In this situation, Ramsay made the film that was just as stylish AND added substance, yet besides at Cannes, the film was comparatively ignored.

In interviews, Fennell’s poshness annoys me like many other Brits.

The way her smooth ascent through the film industry (Richard E Grant and the owner of the film’s mansion are family friends) is frustratingly ignored in press junkets. However, this isn’t a good enough reason to trash the film itself. And while the film isn’t the work of a genius, it deserves to be treated with the same regard as other films from similar stylist male directors.

Saltburn is out now.

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