is 'saltburn' a queer film?
i’ve just finished diving into jack halberstam’s ‘wild thing’s’. it examines the notion of wildness as a queer desire defined by chaos and resisting heteronormativity.
after reading this, i couldn’t help but think about saltburn; a ‘queer’ erotic thriller directed by emerald fennell, following oliver quick as he infiltrates an aristocratic oxford student of his wealth.
it’s exterior of aesthetically stylised queer representation embodies social media’s demand for superficial spectacle, and what halberstam would designate ‘domesticated wildness’ – a neutralised performance of queerness.
the film’s erotic nature and shock factor exploded on social media, achieving 4 billion views in saltburn-themed content and subsequently became one of prime video’s biggest worldwide debuts.
and as we all know: popularity = quality……..
oliver’s desires are obsessive and illogical, consistent to halberstam’s idea of wildness, yielding the tension through outbursts of his repressions of desire, with his grave desecration and bath water scene as prime examples. his feelings are established in the opening sequence; ‘i wasn’t in love with him’ declares oliver, layered over a bookended montage of felix.
however, when the plot twist reveals how oliver planned felix’s murder all along, the queered undertones are all eradicated and supplanted by a thematic focus on british class disparity, reframing queerness not as an experience or identity, but exploited as a narrative tool to engine action.
stylistically, the film appears to prioritise striking aesthetic, rather than serving the queer themes it claims to intend on exploring. oliver and felix’s first oxford year friendship is summarized through a vibrant yet empty montage of amalgamated glamourous images and unnatural exposition. by the time the second act begins, we are unconvinced of both their friendship and oliver’s ‘love’ for felix outside of superficial connotations.
additionally, the unjustified 2006 setting nods at both millennial and british oxbridge nostalgia through songs, props, and fashion styles; gratuitous references designed to pollinate social media platforms engineered for virality whilst mimicking the dopamine spike of stimulating algorithms serving familiarity. these effacements leave saltburn as an elaborately decorated, flamboyantly performed decoy of its supposed queer foundations, hollow in its messaging.
saltburn brought sophie ellis-bextor’s 21-year-old song ‘murder on the dancefloor’ back to the charts, proving the film’s virility and lust for familiarty, contradicting halberstam’s notion that queer wildness is inextricable linked with anti-normativity.
whilst it’s critically scrutinised for its narrative inconsistencies, characterisation flaws, and lack of originality, saltburn’s legacy is conducted by its aestheticized britishness, shock factor and nostalgia-bait, reflecting a culture where attention eclipses affect, cinematic queer transgression is reformatted for social media algorithms, and repression of sexuality is an exploited tool for tension-building.
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