The ‘Saltburn’ Backlash Is Another Weirdly Personal Campaign Against Emerald Fennell

I’ll be honest: I don’t care that Emerald Fennell is rich. I just care that Saltburn—Fennell’s latest polarizing film, which satirizes the ridiculous antics of a fabulously wealthy family—is endlessly entertaining, extremely watchable, and fun.

Taste is subjective, of course, but I had a genuinely great time with this twisted, psycho-sexual, darkly hilarious thriller. Barry Keoghan stars as a quiet Oxford University student named Oliver, who lusts after a beautiful, popular, and rich classmate, Felix (Jacob Elordi). It’s a tale as old as time, really: Oliver doesn’t want to be stuck with the nerds and social outcasts. He wants Felix, in every sense of the word. And boy, does Oliver get what he wants.

Oliver befriends Felix, and even scores an invite to spend the summer with Felix’s wealthy family at their sprawling estate, dubbed Saltburn. How? Well, here’s the part where I’ll offer a spoiler warning: If you haven’t yet seen the movie, and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading now. The only reason Felix invites Oliver to stay is because he pities his poor, impoverished friend after his poor, impoverished father suddenly dies. But a little more than halfway through the film—after Oliver has successfully slept with Felix’s sister, manipulated Felix’s mother, and tormented Felix’s cousin—it’s revealed Oliver lied. His parents aren’t dirt-poor, drug-addicted degenerates. They’re perfectly nice middle-class folks. His dad isn’t even dead!

Critics who disliked Saltburn—which currently has a 70 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes—have zeroed in on this twist. They take issue with the revelation that Saltburn is not, in the end, a movie about evil rich people, but instead a movie about evil middle-class folks who covet the rich lifestyle. The criticism comes with a personal gripe against Fennell: She’s the daughter of high-end jewelry designer, Theo Fennell. In other words, she’s an heiress who grew up in an excessively wealthy family. Pretty rich of her—pun intended—to make a movie that ultimately sides with her fellow elites, right?

Those same critics have lumped Saltburn in with the trend of, as critic Patrick Sproull wrote for Dazed, the “very new, increasingly boring-as-hell ‘eat the rich’ satire.” Sproull argues Fennell fails to effectively skewer the elite class because she’s too loyal to her kind. But, personally, that’s not how I experienced the film at all. To me, the film wasn’t about proving the middle class was secretly more evil than the rich. It was a movie about how these specific characters were all selfish, sociopathic freaks. Rosamund Pike couldn’t care less about the news that her so-called friend has died (“She’d do anything for attention!”) In turn, Barry Keoghan murders her family. It’s not exactly equal, but that’s not the point.

It wasn’t thoughts of class struggle or intergenerational wealth that kept my eyes glued to the screen. It was a burning desire to know what these gorgeous, terrible, insane rich people were going to do next. This movie has everything: Tennis matches in formal wear! Barry Keoghan slurping up semen from a tub drain! Rosamund Pike claiming she was a lesbian for a while, but “it was too wet for me in the end!” (She deserves an Oscar nomination for that line alone.) For me, Saltburn was an escape to an impeccably designed, brightly colored, fucked-up little fantasy world. It’s not perfect—yes, it goes on too long and needlessly over-explains its own twist ending—but it’s fun. That’s it!

Like Promising Young Woman, Fennell’s equally divisive 2020 dark comedy, the world of Saltburn is a heightened reality—all bold, saturated colors—filled with absurd, almost cartoonish characters. These are not real people, nor are they intended to be. They’re dolls being tossed around in a very expensive dollhouse, by Fennell, for the purpose of our entertainment. Saltburn was never meant to be an intellectual examination of class; it’s an invitation to observe some beautiful, freaky people doing some not-so-beautiful, freaky things.

But as with Promising Young Woman, audiences seemed to expect Saltburn to be something it wasn’t. Perhaps marketing is to blame, which was certainly the case with Promising Young Woman. The much-hyped trailer for the 2020 film starring Carey Mulligan promised viewers a cathartic rape-revenge fantasy, but the movie delivered a heart-wrenching Shakespearean tragedy instead. I’ll defend the morbid Promising Young Woman ending to my own dying breath, but quite a few viewers felt understandably betrayed. Some described feeling disturbed, or even heartbroken. The film’s sensitive subject matter—which, unfortunately, is all too real for the one in six American women who have survived sexual assault—led to criticism that went far beyond simply not liking the movie.

The negative reactions to Promising Young Woman were passionate, emotional, and personal. Quite a lot of the backlash was aimed at painting Fennell as a bad person. She was a so-called traitor—a sadist, even—who had let down survivors. Never mind her ability as a filmmaker.

Deserved or not, Fennell had a target on her back going into the release of 2023’s Saltburn. This time around, the movie backlash is focused on Fennell’s wealthy background. Once again, discussion of Fennell’s perceived personal failings has eclipsed conversations about the movie itself. Maybe it’s time to admit that some of you are being pretty weird about her. Yes, she’s a privileged aristocrat, but at least she didn’t scream obscenities at her actors on set. That’s more than I can say for several Oscar-winning directors.

Look, I’m not usually one to jump to the aid of old-money elites. I’m not saying Fennell’s family wealth isn’t a relevant talking point when it comes to Saltburn. (Though, I would argue Fennell’s personal connection to wealthy weirdos is what helps make the film so absurdly funny.) I’m just saying that fact alone isn’t enough to ruin a movie that I genuinely enjoyed. I don’t care that Fennell is privileged, or pretty, or straight, or the daughter of a jewelry heiress. I just care that she makes good movies.