Unexpectedly theatrical and with substance - like gothic thrilling vice laden modern Shakespeare. This is a film about consumption, the weakness and naivety of arrogance, and a complex first love emotion rolling obsession/jealousy/narcissism into one driving force.
There are three acts for me: Oxford, Saltburn, & madness.
The first act didn't work for me till the second act kicked in. I was worried about a overly-parody-fied and caricatured script. Whilst I recognised the feelings and experiences of Oliver at Oxford, the people were too larger than life and the early laughs didn't land properly for me. Laughing at silly posh young people or uber geeks just wasn't my thing. Some of the cruelty and snobbery played out well though.
The second act puts the first into perspective. The first act which shows an alienated and floundering Oliver gain acceptance from a dislikeable group through the actually sane, kind-ish and likeable Felix sets up for the second act. More unlikeable rich people consuming each other and tossing people away like toys. But Oliver has Felix now and has picked up skills in getting things his way, seduction and sweet talking. But the acting from everyone at Saltburn estate is spot on - I properly laughed at Rosamund pikes and Richard e grants moments. Even though they are all spoilt, sheltered, unwittingly arrogant and judgemental - these characters you like, you see their vulnerabilities and insecurities - you have fun when they have fun.
Things start looking beautiful in the second act. Sometimes distractingly so. The light play, framing, and camera work are stunning. You feel you are in the throws of first love in the best summer of your life. Sometimes this was at odds with the drama or tension in the story.
Final act madness. The sympathy built up for the family now leads into the thrilling dramatic unwinding. The consumers become the consumed. Arrogance and haughty ideas of invincibility led to weakness and fractures.
This isn't an overly cohesive film for me, but I think that's intentional as mis direction. Clues for the real story are laid throughout and I had guessed the ending about two thirds of the way in. I really enjoyed the moments of summer headiness, where everyone is enjoying each other's company. Sometimes the inter-character drama and tensions were too much for me - almost descending into reality tv pettiness. I think thats intentional to show the unsympathetic side of the upper class and olivers push back - I just don't think it needed so much.
The pacing and focus was a little off for me at times. The film was full of symbolism and clever lines but it almost felt too full sometimes. Like vacillating rapidly between moods. There was a moment where I was full of tears at portrayal of grief when others were laughing - very interesting but it left me feeling a bit all Over the place. But excited!
The score and the setting and sterling acting efforts lift the film up into a grand feeling vision. I was a little disappointed that the tone of the trailers wasn't present in the film at all (bloc party song teaser trailer was amazing) . But the score takes this to a different place - British, establishment, old money, young love, hubris and longing - great score.
The film is exciting and there are unexpected moments and some brave choices too. I enjoyed watching this a lot and am excited for more films. There's a lot to enjoy here. Barry keoghans metamorphosis through the film is really really thrilling. Reliving 2006 is fun too - wish just a bit more was done with the music and feeling of that time. Some duff moments for me too so a 7.
Recommend
Saw an advance screening of this one.
This is one of the most original and creative films I have ever seen. In the words of Casetify defending their copyright theft: it's "a bastion of originality".
Let's get a quick rundown of the plot:
Some farmers are chilling on their farm, enjoying their peaceful life. They have enough grain for themselves and a little extra. Big evil outsiders come in, and want their grain. This is a problem, because they want all of it. So the evil outsiders announce that they'll be back in ten weeks to take all of their grain, and boy howdy had they better have that grain ready, or else bad things will befall this little peaceful farming town. So the peaceful farmers decide to send out two of their people to go and find some SPACE WARRIORS:tm: to defend them from the evil empire.
At this point, you're probably saying to yourself, "This sounds familiar", but I assure you, it's a story never been seen before on film. Not once.
checks notes
- Seven Samurai
- The Magnificent Seven
- Battle Beyond the Stars
- A Bug's Life
- Star Trek Enterprise: Marauders
- The Magnificent Seven (again)
- etc, etc, etc
Now, what makes this one different, is that it's with Star Wars vibes!
rechecks notes
Oops Mandalorian did this one too in S1E4, "Sanctuary".
So what this movie lacks in originality, it surely makes up for in characters, right? Wrong! Out of the six or seven main characters in this film, all of them get less development than a random spider villain that shows up briefly halfway through. There are two interesting characters, one of which is the main character, Kora, whose flashback stories are infinitely more interesting than her present predicament, and Jimmy, a robot voiced wonderfully by Anthony Hopkins, who disappears after about five minutes of screentime.
This movie consists of the main characters going to a place, seeing a person do something cool, stowing that person in their spaceship for later, repeated a few times. We get a cool scene of Shirtless Guy trying to ride a bird lion thing, which is lifted straight from Avatar, a very derivative film in it's own right. There's a scene of Asian Sword Lady taking down a spider person, which is cool but again has no impact on the story or other characters whatsoever. It's a list of cool action scenes Snyder wanted to string together and came up with some very thin reasoning to get there. It also has the advantage of being a "Part 1", which means the movie is all setup and no payoffs, so nothing really happens in this film. The Moon does not Rebel.
The main Nazi Guy does get killed by our main hero, which should be a pretty permanent thing given that he is in fact dead. I almost gave Snyder a pass here for this next part, because earlier in the movie, he sets up a character that can bring things back to life! Holy reveal, Batman, she's still alive! Nope, they hook him up to some hoses and put him in a water balloon, and he's all better and more ready than ever to subjugate some farmers on a back moon somewhere for some grain, sans the re-aliving princess.
I will give a little credit to the visuals of the film; they're outstanding. This movie was great to look at, even better if you only look at the trailer and don't have to deal with the plot, which is what this film was designed for. Most of the exciting trailer shots were five second flashbacks which weren't fleshed out. I watched more slow motion shots of rice in this movie than actual characters interacting.
To paraphrase Honest Trailers' criticism of Nolan's Tenet: This movie is not Zack Snyder at his best, but it's certainly Zack Snyder at his most.
All that being said, I had a great time. Solid movie. Would recommend. Can't wait for Part 2.
Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
