“People get lost in Saltburn,” warns a creepy butler in Emerald Fennell’s new film Saltburn , which takes place In a country estate called Saltburn in England. This is not unfounded, since it seems easy to get lost in the ancestral home, both literally and metaphorically.
I wish someone had given me that warning.
I've seen a lot of tweets about this movie, which isn't surprising since several of its scenes seem designed to incite online discussion: cunnilingus during menstruation, the bulging of a grave, drinking semen-filled bathwater (Now available as a scented candle!). But many of these reviewers seem to be stuck on something I've been thinking about: the movie's timeline.
It's no secret that Saltburn takes place in 2006 - an era that many millennials have vivid memories of - but there are some red flags that suggest otherwise.
The first one happened very early, when Oliver (Barry Keoghan) pushed his suitcase to the gate of Oxford. A banner "Welcome the Class of 2006" greeted his arrival, which naturally surprised us Americans: If he was a graduate of the Class of 2006, didn't he enroll in 2002? But good-hearted Ollie was attending school in England , a place I'd never been to but knew it was a lot like America, only less emotional, more traditional and sometimes silly. In the UK, since your university education can last three or four years, depending on what you study, "Graduate of 2006" means "you started studying in 2006" and may have finished in 2009 or 2010 Graduation year.
So it was indeed in the fall of 2006 that Oliver first met Felix (Jacob Elordi), and in the summer of 2007, he showed up at Felix's family estate. But that's not the only problem.
Although the soundtrack sets the right mood - you know, that ironically detached fever dream that powered 2005-2015 - It doesn't fit well with the timeline. It's unlikely that anyone would have covered Flo Rida's "Low" at karaoke in the summer of 2007, since the song didn't debut until October 2007. Considering MGMT's Time to Pretend was released in March 2008, there's no way it didn't soundtrack Felix's long summer break. (Of course, the earlier version was released on their 2005 EP, but it's the later version that appears on the official Saltburn playlist.) Then there's Superbad , which the Saltburn crew watched at home. The film was released in the UK in September 2007, so it was not released on DVD for several months after that.
Well, Chloe , you say, technically you're right, but only by a few months! Does it really matter?
Overall, these errors are minor. But why are a bunch of people on the internet so obsessed with them?
Saltburn is a film that invites intellectual participation at every turn, only to stare blankly at those foolish enough to accept it.
Saltburn is a film that invites intellectual participation at every turn, only to stare blankly at those foolish enough to accept it. It blends together the hallmarks of a well-crafted movie—a 4:3 aspect ratio, beautiful cinematography, wildly insane characters—but in the bona fide struggle for prestige, it leaves the center of the maze empty. The result is a good-looking but completely unreflective film, weighed down by grossly muddled class politics and an overall lack of critical thinking.
When faced with a "salt burn," the brain reaches out to grab something, but can only find the smoothest surface without a foothold. It’s so maddening! The audience had no choice but to turn their energy to parsing the differences between the version of "Time to Pretend" released on the EP and the later album. I really don't care when "Low" comes out! Yet here I am, completely transformed into a weird little guy trying to figure out how long it will take for a 2007 theatrical movie to be released on DVD.
I got lost in Saltburn. I became Oliver. Better throw out your bath water.
