Movie Reviews #1

Definitely surprising, maybe not in the best way. 

My first impression of this film was from the trailer, which gives an entirely different impression than the actual film. Watching the trailer I was reminded of Call me by Your Name (2017), and maybe it was just me but I was given the impression of a quirky queer romance film, something I wasn’t particularly interested in as I’m not a fan of Jacob Elordi and it felt like something I’d probably seen before. When it was released though, there was significant chatter surrounding it, partly because of the soundtrack (of which I am a fan) but mostly due to the scenes of a strange sexual nature. 
Being a horror fan I am a big fan of weird movies so naturally I was interested.  So I watched it and…was underwhelmed.
Firstly, starting with something positive, I will commend the cinematography, this film is absolutely utterly stunning. Every single shot is gorgeous really this is a gorgeous gorgeous film
And I did enjoy the film, it was a fun watch but I’ve found myself bored of these shock value movies. Obviously this shock value works because the reception to this movie was huge but I’m honestly tired of films being strange purely for that reason. And on top of that personally this film didn’t succeed in being ‘strange’ to me. Nothing I haven’t seen before. Which maybe is more the fault of the huge commotion surrounding it that I was underwhelmed rather than the films fault, but the trailer definitely left a lot of ambiguity and gave me the impression that it would be a weird artsy film. 

Ultimately though this film left me confused. It’s not clear if the intention of this film was to just make a pretty film, make a weird film, or make a captivating film. They absolutely succeeded at the first but otherwise it’s really not that strange, and it’s captivation is lost in the ending. All the pondering on what the protagonists intentions and motives are is lost as it spells everything out for you.
 I really wish Saltburn was a weird film that left little to no explanation or at least left some room for interpretation. The ‘twist’ with flashback explanations feels so out of place. It feels like a high budget basic plot movie pretending to be an interesting artsy indie film. And with the success of A24-type movies I fear that’s where a lot of cinema is headed, shallow films shrouded with an indie film filter.