Overview
After making one of the absolute best films to reach Australian cinema screens in 2021, Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell is back with Saltburn — and she's repeated the feat in 2023. Swapping the US dating scene for Britain's upper class, the writer/director spins a satire about privilege and desire that's devastatingly well cast and devilish overall. Haven't caught the end result yet? You'll be able to do so from your couch before Christmas.
Add Saltburn to the list of movies that've enjoyed pandemic-era swift leaps from the big screen to the small, with the film getting fast-tracked to home entertainment while it's still in cinemas. Barbie did it. Everything from Dune, The Matrix Resurrections and Everything Everywhere All At Once to Elvis, Nope and Don't Worry Darling have before that, too. In this case, you'll be watching the Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)- and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria)-starring thriller from Friday, December 22 on Prime Video.
Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, who arrives at Oxford University as part of the future class of 2006, but finds himself stuck as an outsider among his well-off classmates. Enter Elordi as Felix Catton, the charming campus favourite who gains a helping hand in Oliver, then invites his new pal to his family's eponymous estate for the summer.
Fennell won a rightly deserved Oscar for her Promising Young Woman script, and reteams with Carey Mulligan (She Said) again here. Also demonstrating the actor (The Crown)-turned-filmmaker's knack for casting: 2023 Academy Award-nominee Keoghan, aka one of the screen's most interesting and talented rising stars, plus Elordi, Rosamund Pike (The Wheel of Time), Richard E Grant (Persuasion) and Lolly Adefope (Miracle Workers).
As Felix's sister Venetia, Conversations with Friends' Alison Oliver is similarly excellent — as is Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story's Archie Madekwe as fellow Oxford student and Catton cousin Farleigh.
If you not only haven't seen Saltburn yet, but you've avoided having its twists, surprises and bold moves spoiled for you, you'll want to keep it that way until you can see this mix of Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr Ripley and Cruel Intentions.
Check out the Saltburn trailer below:
Saltburn will be available to stream via Prime Video globally from Friday, December 22. It's also still showing in cinemas Down Under. Read our review.