--- title: "Saltburn" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/saltburn" fi1m_id: "saltburn" imdb_id: "tt17351924" tmdb_id: 930564 wikidata_id: "Q113135527" fi1m_score: 60 critics_score: 65 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-10" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:41.421164+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Saltburn (2023) Directed by Emerald Fennell · 2h 11m · MPA R · Drama, Comedy, Thriller ## Identity Saltburn - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/saltburn - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** saltburn - **IMDb ID:** tt17351924 - **TMDB ID:** 930564 - **Wikidata ID:** Q113135527 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17351924/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/930564, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113135527 **Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 65 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* Brideshead with the sex left in and the point taken out > Emerald Fennell’s country-house comedy is handsome, well acted and rude in all the right places, and it mistakes rudeness for satire. Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant earn the ticket; the last twenty minutes nearly hand it back. ## Synopsis Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a scholarship student from a modest background, arrives at Oxford and finds himself on the outside of everything. A lent bicycle brings him into the orbit of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), rich, popular and effortlessly kind, and the two become close over the course of the year. When term ends, Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s vast country house. There Oliver meets Felix’s parents, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) and Sir James (Richard E. Grant), his sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), his cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) and a long-staying houseguest known as Poor Dear Pamela (Carey Mulligan). Written and directed by Emerald Fennell. ## Review Emerald Fennell’s second film, after *Promising Young Woman*, sends a scholarship boy to Oxford, hands him a golden friend, and invites them both to the friend’s country house for the summer. Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is poor, clever and watchful; Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) is rich, kind and never alone. The house is Saltburn, and its family have never been told no. Anyone who knows Waugh or Highsmith will know the shape of the plot, and Fennell knows they know. What follows is 131 minutes that are handsome, rude and often funny, with less to say about the English class system than either of the books it grew from. Keoghan is good at watching. He gives Oliver a stillness that reads as shyness early and as something else later, and he can hold a close-up while doing nothing. Elordi has the harder job, since Felix has to be worth all this wanting, and he manages it by playing the boy’s generosity as a habit he has never examined. Ewan Mitchell is sharply funny as Michael Gavey, the other outsider in college, who is dropped the moment Oliver finds better company. The Oxford stretch is the tightest writing in the film, cruel about the pecking order and honest about how much people want in. Then the summer, and the family. Rosamund Pike’s Elspeth is the reason to buy a ticket: a woman who has never had a thought she felt the need to keep to herself, played with a gaze that drifts away from the person she is insulting halfway through the insult. Richard E. Grant’s Sir James is delighted to have a guest and cannot remember why. Carey Mulligan’s Poor Dear Pamela has outstayed a welcome nobody quite extended, and Alison Oliver’s Venetia drifts up from the pool with a cigarette and something she has been told not to say. We laughed a great deal at that dinner table, with a nastier edge than we expected, because Pike never once signals that Elspeth is a joke. Fennell’s crew have built her a place worth coveting. Linus Sandgren shoots in a frame close to square, so the house is cut off at the edges and the people a little too near; the dinners are lit by candle and the lawns by a long yellow evening. Suzie Davies’s Saltburn is dark wood, stuffed birds and dust in the sunlight. Sophie Canale dresses the Cattons as if they have never bought anything and Oliver as if he bought everything last week. Anthony B. Willis writes a choir under it all, and Victoria Boydell cuts the summer as montage, so that weeks of swimming and drinking go by in a couple of noughties pop songs. The trouble is that the film wants two things. It wants us to see the Cattons as grotesques, and it wants us to want the house, the lawn, the endless summer, and it does the second better. Archie Madekwe’s Farleigh, the cousin on sufferance, is the only character who understands what the money is doing to everyone, and the film keeps him at the edge of the frame. Oliver is a blank. We know what he wants; we never learn why, and by the second hour that had stopped feeling like mystery and started to feel like a decision Fennell had not got round to making. The second half takes a turn we will not describe. Having taken it, the film explains it, with a montage and a voiceover, in case we had missed anything. We had not. That last stretch is where we went from amused to irritated: it treats the audience as slower than the film, and the film is not quick. *Promising Young Woman* was a nasty, focused piece with one idea it saw through to the end. *Saltburn* has several ideas, most of them older than Fennell, and finishes none of them. See it for Pike and Grant, for the house, and for a first hour that is sharper than most of the reviews allow. Do not stay up afterwards discussing what it meant; it has already told you. It carries a 15 certificate. *Fi1m score 60, published 10 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews divide sharply, and the split is over one question: whether style is enough. Most critics agree the film looks handsome and moves with confidence, and nearly all of them praise the cast, with Barry Keoghan’s lead and Rosamund Pike’s rude, funny Elspeth named most often; Richard E. Grant gets his share of credit too. The reservations gather around what lies underneath. Several critics call it derivative, pointing to The Talented Mr Ripley and Brideshead Revisited, and many find the class satire thin, more interested in shocks than in observation. Oliver himself is a recurring complaint, described as a blank. The spread is wide. The Playlist finds it bold and operatic and forgives it almost everything, while Little White Lies and Vulture find it silly and empty beneath the glamour. In between, a large middle group enjoy it as trash, say so happily, and then wish it had more to say. ## Straight answers **Is Saltburn worth watching?** *Saltburn* is worth watching for Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant and a sharp first hour at Oxford, and we scored it 60. Emerald Fennell's country-house comedy is handsome and rude, but it mistakes rudeness for satire, and the last twenty minutes explain a twist the audience has already understood. Best for viewers who want a nasty laugh rather than an argument about class. **How long is Saltburn, and what is it rated?** *Saltburn* runs 2h 11m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and comedy film. **Where can I watch Saltburn in the US?** *Saltburn* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and The Roku Channel in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $5.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Saltburn, and is it suitable for children?** *Saltburn* carries a 15 certificate in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not for children. Its adult content is chiefly sex and frank rudeness rather than violence or horror; the tone is a comedy of manners with a nasty edge, and the second half takes a turn we will not describe. Teenagers old enough for the certificate will cope; the squeamish may not. **How does Saltburn compare to The Talented Mr. Ripley?** *Saltburn* and [*The Talented Mr. Ripley*](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley) tell the same story of a poor man wanting his way into a rich friend's life, and the earlier film is the better one. Minghella plays the envy straight and makes Damon's Ripley painful to watch, where Emerald Fennell plays it for laughs and leaves Barry Keoghan's Oliver a blank. Choose *Ripley* for an unsettling thriller, *Saltburn* for the jokes and the house. **What should I watch after Saltburn?** After *Saltburn*, try [*The Talented Mr. Ripley*](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley) (1999, Fi1m 80): The same wanting, played straight, with a Damon who makes you complicit rather than curious. Then [*Plein soleil*](https://film.one/film/purple-noon) (1960, Fi1m 82): Highsmith’s Ripley first time round: Delon on a yacht, sun everywhere, no explanations offered; and [*The Servant*](https://film.one/film/the-servant) (1963, Fi1m 89): Losey and Pinter on class and a London house; colder, slower and far more frightening. ### Reviews we read (27) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): Fennell’s deliciously dark comedy is a heady joy that skewers the English class system with sharp wit and captures the hollowness beneath the wealthy’s cosseted lives, buoyed by strong performances. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/saltburn-2023) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (60/100, inferred): The class satire is diabolically clever with ingenious twists and gleefully derisive attention to the mansion's absurdities, but there is a void at its center as the protagonist remains a blank vessel for obvious class anxiety and sexual desire. The implied film with deeper psychology and motives is better than the actual one, which feels like an elaborately decorated simulacrum. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/saltburn-is-a-brideshead-for-the-incel-age) - **Slant Magazine**, Marshall Shaffer (2/4): Tries to pass off bombastic provocations as a substitute for interesting observations about class and identity; a banal bacchanal that prioritizes aesthetics over analysis. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan/) - **The AV Club**, Courtney Howard (C-): Derivative dramedy that fails to hit the mark despite strong performances; fumbles character construction and misjudges the audience's intellect. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/saltburn-movie-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-1851017717) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (4/2/2): Fennell's stylish second feature starts as an entertaining dramedy about class but veers into ridiculousness, feeling hollow and frustrating in its understanding of class dynamics beneath its glamorous veneer. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/saltburn/) - **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film full of strong vibes and seductive imagery but ultimately silly and empty, with a fondness for button-pushing endings that undermine the buildup. It is more about luscious montages of rich life than meaningful provocation. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/saltburn-review-vibes-and-empty-provocations.html) - **Empire**, Sophie Butcher: The critic praises the confident direction, vivid noughties setting, charismatic cast and visual style, but faults the thin characters, clunky dialogue and writing that prioritizes shocks over substance, leaving a mixed impression. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/saltburn/) - **Evening Standard**, Ella Kemp: The critic calls the film a deliciously twisty and ridiculous tale of overprivilege, highlighting its strong cast, aesthetic pleasures and gifted direction while noting its familiarity and focus on class, desire and deception. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/saltburn-movie-review-barry-keoghan-jacob-elordi-emerald-fennell-b1110316.html) - **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (6): A splashy satire of wealth and privilege that feels like Highsmith without the wit, dabbling in class and psychology with shock tactics but little insight, though the comic register with supporting cast is hugely enjoyable. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/d8a2f980-0b76-4f9e-ba83-c0ddd97ba0f2) - **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson: The critic describes a cold-blooded heart-clencher about inequality and class envy in which one vulture swoops in to feed. It singles out the precise direction, editing, and needle drops along with the nerve-racking transgressive sex scenes and strong performances for praise. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-11-17/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-jacob-elordi-rosamund-pike) - **Screen Daily**: Fennell delivers a spikily entertaining, narratively rackety class satire drawing from Waugh and Highsmith, led by a formidable Barry Keoghan and featuring richly comic turns from the ensemble. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/saltburn-telluride-review/5185363.article) - **Sight and Sound**: The critic finds Fennell’s eat-the-rich satire tired, showy and hollow, with superficial characters and flashy but meaningless visuals that fail to deliver genuine drama or tension. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/saltburn-ostentatious-black-comedy-designed-shock) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: Fennell's follow-up indulges in an untrammelled, wayward tale lacking character coherence, logic and pacing. Rosamund Pike as Elspeth provides some perverse pleasures as a gloriously rude presence. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/19/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-rosamund-pike-indulgent-country-house-thriller) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic calls it a stylish but derivative and ultimately silly patchwork of borrowed ideas from films like Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr. Ripley. It is juicy and often wickedly funny, especially thanks to the supporting turns from Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant, but lacks real insight. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/saltburn-review-barry-keoghan-jacob-elordi-emerald-fennell-1235577882/) - **The i Paper**, Christina Newland: The critic finds the film seductive and stylish to watch, with strong performances and visual flair, but ultimately unfocused and condescending, treating characters as pawns in uneven plotting that lacks real emotional depth or perceptive class commentary. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-class-satire-2754072) - **The New York Times**, Alissa Wilkinson: The critic enjoyed the film as a deliberately jocular, silly gothic campus and great-house tale whose transgressive elements and plot are diversions from its candy-coated form. She singles out its sumptuous, gleeful style for praise over any deeper satirical content. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/movies/saltburn-movie-satire.html) - **The Telegraph**: Fennell's anarchic class satire is a macabre, uproarious Brideshead regurgitated that is outrageously watchable, drunk on its own daring with terrific performances and fearless visuals. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/saltburn-review-brideshead-regurgitated/) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★☆☆): Fennell takes judicious swipes at grotesque privilege in a biting film propped up by one-liners and deranged charms of the Catton family, though Oliver is a nonsense character. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/saltburn-film-review-wzg08n6n2) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge: The critic finds the film big on style but thin on substance, a vicious 'Talented Mr. Ripley' knockoff with attitude but nothing new to say. It praises the splashy look, visual sense, and colorful performances while criticizing the lack of originality, plausible psychology, and failure to rise above similar films. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-1235705894/) - **The Playlist**, Gregory Ellwood (A-): Fennell delivers a bold, audacious, fearless film with spectacular performances, especially Keoghan, pushing boundaries in a wild, operatic way, ripping the ruling class, though with minor quibbles on length. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/saltburn-telluride-review-barry-keoghans-emerald-fennell-posh-big-boy-summer-is-truly-wild-20230901/) - **/Film**, Jacob Hall (8.5/10): The critic calls the film one of 2023's bleakest comedies and a seductive monster movie in the vein of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley stories. They single out Barry Keoghan's outstanding, riveting performance as the cunning, morally bankrupt lead for particular praise. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1402489/saltburn-review-barry-keoghan-outstanding-2023-bleakest-comedy/) - **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila (80/100, inferred): The critic finds Saltburn a gloriously trashy and sexy thriller that's hugely enjoyable as pure entertainment, praising its handsome visuals, strong casting especially Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, and camp approach to masculinity, while noting it's not substantial or deep. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/saltburn-review-emerald-fennells-sophomore-film-is-gloriously-trashy-and-sexy/) - **NME**, Alex Flood (80/100, inferred): The critic finds Emerald Fennell's follow-up to Promising Young Woman an intoxicating, funny satire of class and obsession that builds to shocking brutality and a gripping finale. They single out Rosamund Pike's hilarious supporting performance as the film's standout element. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/saltburn-review-party-with-the-poshos-in-the-naughty-noughties-3541554) - **Collider**, Emma Kiely (B): The film lacks deeper meaning or bite and adds nothing new to the recent wave of 'eat the rich' stories. It stands out for its strong cast performances, exquisite cinematography, and the amusing juxtaposition of opulent estates with modern banalities and pop culture. [Read](https://collider.com/saltburn-review/) - **The Wrap** (75/100, inferred): Fennell delivers heaps of directorial finesse and agile vision in this eccentric, gaudy gothic dark comedy that feels marvelously British. Barry Keoghan is brilliant as the intense, duplicitous lead, though the film stumbles with over-explained twists and an odd aspect ratio. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell/) - **Consequence**, Clint Worthing (C+): Saltburn offers a glorious, alluring surface with a sexy cast and psychosexual games but feels like an uneven gumbo that gestures toward satire without landing deeper blows. The provocative clash of old and new is noted but ultimately shallow. [Read](https://consequence.net/2023/11/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell/) - **Deadline**, Todd McCarthy: The critic finds Emerald Fennell’s sophomore feature a vibrant if familiar class satire with an undeniable life force and strong direction, though the story trajectory feels overwrought and the tone shifts awkwardly in the second half. Keoghan’s lead performance and the lively writing are singled out for praise amid some eccentric casting choices that disrupt the balance. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/08/saltburn-review-emerald-fennell-barry-koeghan-jacob-elordi-1235533586/) ## Details - **Director:** Emerald Fennell - **Director:** Emerald Fennell - **Writer:** Emerald Fennell - **Cinematography:** Linus Sandgren - **Editor:** Victoria Boydell - **Music:** Anthony Willis - **Production design:** Suzie Davies - **Costume design:** Sophie Canale - **Producer:** Josey McNamara, Emerald Fennell, Margot Robbie - **Cast:** Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick; Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton; Rosamund Pike as Elspeth Catton; Richard E. Grant as Sir James Catton; Alison Oliver as Venetia Catton; Archie Madekwe as Farleigh Start; Carey Mulligan as Poor Dear Pamela; Paul Rhys as Duncan - **Runtime:** 2h 11m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 22 November 2023 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy, Thriller - **Budget:** $20 million - **Box office:** $21 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8l0llLj1uM ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: free, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, TH, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999), Fi1m 80: The same wanting, played straight, with a Damon who makes you complicit rather than curious. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley.md) - *Plein soleil* (1960), Fi1m 82: Highsmith’s Ripley first time round: Delon on a yacht, sun everywhere, no explanations offered. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/purple-noon.md) - *The Servant* (1963), Fi1m 89: Losey and Pinter on class and a London house; colder, slower and far more frightening. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-servant.md) - *Brideshead Revisited* (1981), Fi1m 83: The Waugh adaptation Fennell is quoting, in eleven hours, with the melancholy left in. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/brideshead-revisited.md) - *Parasite* (2019), Fi1m 91: Bong Joon-ho’s poor family in a rich house, where the architecture does the arguing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/parasite.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/saltburn