Saltburn

[Vodkafone]

Worth seeing, I thought, though it could have been better. Dark, a good performance by Barry Keoghan and some good lines. I thought it was troweled on a bit towards the end and several things spelled out that didn't need to be. Brief appearances from Lolly Adefope and from Reece Shearsmith, who plays a cunt (which he does well, of course).

The music was well chosen, particularly the section with Time to Pretend by MGMT.

These are my thoughts, you may have others.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

It may be good, but it's one of a number of things I've seen being covered recently (another being the new play Mates In Chelsea) with the angle of "isn't it interesting and inexplicable that I, a preposterously posh person, am drawn to telling a story about other preposterously posh people?" Which puts my back up. 

[Memorex MP3]

Thought her last film was atrocious and everything about this one suggests the same

[C_Larence]

I detested Promising Young Woman, a completely vapid movie that seemingly exists solely to suggest that it's fine when women are murdered because actually the police will sort it all out. I have zero interest in ever seeing anything else Fennell creates, she can't possibly create anything of worth to me.

[Vodkafone]

It may be good, but it's one of a number of things I've seen being covered recently (another being the new play Mates In Chelsea) with the angle of "isn't it interesting and inexplicable that I, a preposterously posh person, am drawn to telling a story about other preposterously posh people?" Which puts my back up. 

I knew nothing about her before seeing the film. Maybe that helps. I find posh people as difficult as the rest of us, but artist/art separation?

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

I know, but it's not that which I have trouble separating, so much as the knowledge of how easy already rich and gilded people find it to get their projects off the ground compared to others.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

how is emerald fennel a real name? if i said my name was diamond parsnip people would dismiss me out of hand

[SteveDave]

Her dad's a big jewellery man. He must really like cereal as well because her sister is called Coco.

I like the way her Wikipedia photo makes her look like Rocky Dennis or someone from "Bo Selecta"

[Vodkafone]

how is emerald fennel a real name? if i said my name was diamond parsnip people would dismiss me out of hand

Yeah but that's because fennel has an edible upper part and an edible root but parsnip doesn't, you silly billy. If you said your name was Diamond Celery, everyone would think that was fine.

[Blinder Data]

don't like the tone of this thread much - whiff of misogyny. there's a way to criticise the filmmaker without going after her looks.

I could watch this film on mubi go but I'm too busy, especially for a psychological thriller set in the world of mid 2000s poshos, a very boring idea for a film.

[Vodkafone]

don't like the tone of this thread much - whiff of misogyny. there's a way to criticise the filmmaker without going after her looks.

I could watch this film on mubi go but I'm too busy, especially for a psychological thriller set in the world of mid 2000s poshos, a very boring idea for a film.

For me there was interest in what is essentially a period piece but within recent memory, because there is a whole lot of semiology in the clothes and music. There is a party scene and the main soundtrack is Loneliness by Tomcraft, which is a perfect choice because it's a good tune but was ubiquitous and mainstream enough at the time to be exactly what a bunch of toff dilettante clubbers would want to hear. That is not a pitch to you to watch the film though.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

I'm not attacking her for her looks. I'm attacking her for being able to make a film because she has friends who run hedge funds, and using that opportunity to make a film about the sort of people she went to Marlborough with. It's a microcosm of the problems with the arts on the UK right now.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Wasn't interested in this film particularly but then I realised the director follows me on twitter, so I'm still not that interested but I feel a lot more warmly towards it, like she clearly has good taste.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I enjoyed this quite a lot and it's pretty well made (agree it could be slightly tighter) but it's essentially a re-tread of Ripley/Purple Noon in many ways.

[Memorex MP3]

don't like the tone of this thread much - whiff of misogyny. there's a way to criticise the filmmaker without going after her looks.

Does one comment determine the tone of a thread?

The ones around her name feel far more about posh people with ridiculous names more than anything gendered.

[DrGreggles]

Saw it yesterday.
Interesting premise and starts well, but it loses its way about halfway through, and then just gets silly.
Looks really nice though, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

[Clive Dogshit]

If I thought Promising Young Woman was an absolute load of awful dogshit what are the chances that I'll enjoy this? (That's a genuine question btw)

[dissolute ocelot]

So it's not a hybrid of Brightburn and Salt in which Angelina Jolie turns out to be an evil alien? Not interested then.

(Although the title is so shit, I hope it does make some kind of sense. Is it like when you shoot someone with a shotgun full of rock salt, which also seems fairly pointless?)

[Tiggles]

It was nice to look at but I found it pretty incoherent in tone and character logic. Went on for waaaaaay too long. Not sure any of the really OTT stuff they gave to the protagonist was convincing (or indeed what I was supposed to be convinced of). And Barry Keoghan was visibly much older than the part he was playing (Fennell had the same problem with Carey Mulligan in PYW iirc).

Beautifully acted by everyone involved and I loved the look and feel of the party scene. I think maybe if I'd been age 14-22 in 2006 I'd derive some nostalgia from the cultural touchpoints. As it was, if I'd have been watching at home instead of at the cinema I'd have probably been on my phone after the first hour or so.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I'm going against the grain of this thread as I really liked Promising Young Woman, and couldn't care less how she got it and whatever else she makes off the ground (although as it happens she apparently got the relatively low budget financing due to the script being liked/bought by a production company) so will probably check this out.

[Memorex MP3]

Neither attacking or defending her her but she was already a showrunner on Killing Eve by this point, I know nothing about her early career but the reason she got financing was in large part because she was already established and down as one to watch within the industry.

I'm going against the grain of this thread as I really liked Promising Young Woman, and couldn't care less how she got it and whatever else she makes off the ground (although as it happens she apparently got the relatively low budget financing due to the script being liked/bought by a production company) so will probably check this out.

[Vodkafone]

It was nice to look at but I found it pretty incoherent in tone and character logic. Went on for waaaaaay too long. Not sure any of the really OTT stuff they gave to the protagonist was convincing (or indeed what I was supposed to be convinced of). And Barry Keoghan was visibly much older than the part he was playing (Fennell had the same problem with Carey Mulligan in PYM iirc).

Beautifully acted by everyone involved and I loved the look and feel of the party scene. I think maybe if I'd been age 14-22 in 2006 I'd derive some nostalgia from the cultural touchpoints. As it was, if I'd have been watching at home instead of at the cinema I'd have probably been on my phone after the first hour or so.

Yeah, definitely too long but good performances, particularly from Rosamund Pike - almost every utterance a masterclass in careless, unconscious, polite nastiness. The lesbian line was great (don't worry whiteknights, it wasn't problematic). Richard E Grant doesn't get to say much but was also very good - he had an almost Rowley Birkin-esque lost and sad madness in his eyes.

[Sebastian Cobb]

What I don't get is

Spoiler alert

If it was all a well-executed long-con to worm his way into aristocracy and then once he was there inherit the house. What was all the lapping up cummy bathwater and grave fucking all about?

That's not to say I think those scenes should've been cut, grave fucking should be present in more films if anything.

[close]

[rjd2]

don't like the tone of this thread much - whiff of misogyny. there's a way to criticise the filmmaker without going after her looks.

I could watch this film on mubi go but I'm too busy, especially for a psychological thriller set in the world of mid 2000s poshos, a very boring idea for a film.

Mubi Go?

Does the new film they show every week stay for just a week or have you longer to watch it?

[Sebastian Cobb]

It only works for that week (as it generates a QR code to be redeemed on an app on a phone in the cinema). Rolls over on Friday's.

[dissolute ocelot]

Sight and Sound almost never actually says that a movie is bad, but it has an excoriating review from Sophie Monks Kaufman which calls it "tired, showy and hollow" and "like it was melted down from a moodboard dotted with images from better films". "An ostentatious visual language strives to make something out of nothing, shooting conversations in intense close-ups and contriving flashy compositions that are disconnected from meaning" doesn't sound good either. But Barry Keoghan is good.

[neveragain]

I detested Promising Young Woman, a completely vapid movie that seemingly exists solely to suggest that it's fine when women are murdered because actually the police will sort it all out.

Not that I'm saying PYW was faultlessly brilliant (I still liked it) but I really didn't see the ending as saying that. What it said to me was the police never act until its too late, and the main character used this as a back-up. A last chance at justice.

[buzby]

Although as it happens she apparently got the relatively low budget financing due to the script being liked/bought by a production company.

The film was produced by LuckyChap, owned by Fennell's friends Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr (Fennell got a bit part in Barbie alongside Robbie, which LuckyChap also produced), who had previously produced Promising Young Woman (for which Fennell won an Oscar for the screenplay, so they were hardly likely to say no). It was co-financed by Media Rights Capital, and the distribution rights were subsequently sold to Amazon Studios and MGM.

Variety's review wasn't exactly glowing either.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The film was produced by LuckyChap, owned by Fennell's friends Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley, who had previously produced Promising Young Woman. It was initially co-financed by Media Rights Capital, but the distribution rights were susseq sold to Amazon Studios and MGM.

Should have been clearer, that was in reference to Promising Young Woman not this new one

[buzby]

Should have been clearer, that was in reference to Promising Young Woman not this new one

LuckyChap agreed to produce Promising Young Woman at the pitch stage, before the script was even written. Them getting involved made Fennell change the setting from London to the US when she began writing it.