After a not entirely casual meeting, an unassuming Oxford student named Ollie (Barry Keoghan) befriends a popular classmate, the handsome and wealthy Felix (Jacob Elordi). Felix invites Ollie to spend the summer with him at Saltburn, his eccentric family’s opulent mansion in the English countryside. Murder and madness ensue.
Critics have correctly noted that Amazon Prime Video Salt burner bears a striking resemblance to another film depicting a young man’s endearing search for social acceptance (and it’s a mild spoiler to mention, so be warned): The talented Mr. Ripley. But when it comes to the film’s message, critics completely missed the mark Salt burner as a rich-eating comedy that “skewers” the ultra-rich and revels in “class warfare.”
This interpretation could not be more wrong. Felix and his family aren’t bad: they are victims of scheming strangers who covet everything they have and seek to destroy it. Indeed, the rich people in the film are too kind and generous; they should have thrown Ollie out on the first day. Forget Ripley; Salt burner it has much more in common with the critically acclaimed but widely misunderstood Parasite, in which a wealthy Korean family is preyed upon by a lower-class family (the eponymous parasites). Both films are, if anything, reactionary, something almost no one seems to have noticed.