Originally published in print in February 2024.
Our best filmmakers – Scorcese, Tarantino, Spielberg – are heading into their twilight years, so the question arises: who are going to be the big filmmakers of our generation? If you were to ask any film student, they would know the name Emerald Fennell. Her debut feature Promising Young Woman (2020) garnered glowing reviews, as well as an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. She followed this with perhaps the one of the most talked about movies of last year, Saltburn (2023). With this rise in fame, Fennell has been the ire of online misogyny like many a woman in the film industry. Fans have flocked to defend her, even sparking articles from the likes of Euronews: ‘Defending ‘Saltburn’: Is the criticism of director Emerald Fennell sexist?’ However, I disagree with the article’s idea that “while those three male directors [Tarantino, Fincher and Nolan] are praised for their gorgeous cinematography despite depthless plots, Fennell has been punished. It reeks of a double standard.” In general film critics have been kind to Fennell, with both of her films gaining largely positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, Promising Young Woman has a whopping 90% critic’s score and Saltburn has a favourable 71%.
To discuss Fennell, it’s important to gain insight into her background. She has had a privileged upbringing – and not just by being white and middle class, but extravagance to the point where her eighteenth birthday was written about in Tatler. Fennell’s father is renowned jeweller Theo Fennell, whose clients have included Elton John and Madonna. In the case of someone like Fennell who comes from such a privileged background, this has given her greater access than the vast majority of people to the creative industry. This access to the industry is a symptom of our capitalist society. There’s ample evidence of the material benefits of wealth, including access to opportunities like education. However, further than that is the social capital that a wealthy background brings, as is excellently described in the book The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged. There’s a way of speaking with highbrow wit and casual intelligence that allows those with wealth to “fit in.” This is evidenced by a quick look at the film industry and seeing those with upbringings even wealthier than Fennell’s, from director Maggie Gyllenhaal to film producer Megan Ellison to actress Cara Delevingne.
“As part of the white British elite, Fennell is complicit in upholding the systems of oppression in today’s world. However, her films indicate a nescience towards taking any form of accountability.”
Personal background and experiences inform the perspective a person brings to their art. In an interview with NME, Fennell says, “Saltburn is me trying to come to terms with what an embarrassing person I am.” Furthermore, in an interview with Hunger in response to a question about drawing on her own experiences when writing, she answers, “people want to know thematically what you’re talking about. But actually, if it comes from inside you, you’re not thinking in that way, really.” As part of the white British elite, Fennell is complicit in upholding the systems of oppression in today’s world. However, her films indicate a nescience towards taking any form of accountability. She is certainly aware of the role of privilege in society, admitting that “being rich and living in London gives you a deeply unfair advantage.” Yet in Saltburn she refuses to go any further; there’s an almost unwillingness to completely denounce extravagant wealth. This is not about painting Fennell as some cartoonish aristocratic villain, but indeed if any of us wish to change the way the world works, we must attempt to dissect our own complicity in upholding systems of oppression. It is only then can we begin to gain a full understanding of the societal issues we face.
“her movies echo the views of wealthy white liberals, willing to impart surface-level insights into the current capitalistic and patriarchal world that we live in, but not to meaningfully challenge or reimagine these systems. She provides endings which appear to be subversive, but once scrutinised, fall apart at the seams.”
It’s understandable why Fennell’s movies have captured the attention of audiences, particularly young adults. They feature celebrities like comedian Bo Burnham and heartthrob Jacob Elordi, as well as some of our most established and well-known actors like Carey Mulligan and Richard E. Grant. Her movies are littered with shots that are saturated with colour similar to Sam Levinson’s hit show Euphoria, providing an aesthetic that can be easily screenshotted and posted online to rack up likes. Fennell is also well aware of our present day politics and the topics which capture the attention of the cultural zeitgeist. Her two films hit on subjects which have a mainstay in online discourse, namely feminism and class, in Promising Young Woman and Saltburn respectively. While many adore Fennell, her movies echo the views of wealthy white liberals, willing to impart surface-level insights into the current capitalistic and patriarchal world that we live in, but not to meaningfully challenge or reimagine these systems. She provides endings which appear to be subversive, but once scrutinised, fall apart at the seams.
In Fennell’s debut feature Promising Young Woman, a film marketed as a rape-revenge thriller, Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan), a thirty-year-old medical school dropout, begins conconcting a revenge plan for her best friend Nina following her sexual assault and subsequent suicide. Cassie frequently pretends to be drunk at bars. When men approach her and bring her home to have sex, she drops the act, and the idea of revenge here is a telling-off to the men to make them realise they are taking advantage of her. It’s a very naive idea to depict their advances on a drunk Cassie as an unknowing mistake; a number of these men would be aware of their actions and in real life would likely become violent. Cassie begins to confront the people who were in her mind complicit in Nina’s suicide, from a classmate who denied the rape to the college dean who dismissed Nina’s case to the lawyer who defended the rapist. In the end, they all learn their lesson, but the revenge enacted on them is considerably tame compared to the trauma that Nina would have experienced. Fennell is satisfied with the idea that learning your lesson is enough of a punishment; there’s seemingly no “bad” people in Promising Young Woman besides Nina’s rapist. The punishment here involves Cassie being murdered at his hands in the film, but in a twist it’s revealed that this was her plan. The rapist is subsequently arrested by police in the closing scene. If Fennell’s intention here was to provide catharsis to the audience and victims of sexual assault that the rapist will ultimately be punished, it completely fails to do so – infamously, the police and law have an extremely poor record of successfully convicting perpetrators of such crimes. On the other hand, if her intention was to point this out, there is still far too much gratuitous violence as we bear witness to a rapist brutally murdering a woman. Either way, it is a very irresponsible and smug ending, which fails to provide catharsis to victims, add nuanced discussion to the issues of the patriarchy, or help change the minds of those who are ignorant to the challenges that women face. This reflects the criticisms of white feminism today, viewing the experience of womanhood from a narrow viewpoint.
“Indeed, both of Fennell’s films generally like to point to societal issues, but fail to actually challenge these issues through interrogating the reasons they occur or analysing those who compound these issues. Both of her films act as awareness-building exercises: yes the patriarchy is bad, and yes, the concepts of social class are ridiculous. Yet the buck stops at awareness-building, and if a film wishes to actually have any wider social impact we need to be willing to be more critical.”
In an interview with Roger Ebert, Fennell speaks about society’s view of women today and how we all suffer under the patriarchy. In response to questions about how alcohol excuses bad behaviour, Fennell responds, “That’s what this film is about. It’s not about traditional predators. It’s just about good people who’ve just, they’ve been given a loophole by the culture and so they just don’t think too deeply about the loophole. They just don’t look at it”. This offers a level of insight into Fennell’s understanding of the role of the patriarchy in society. It’s far easier to wave the hand at society as a whole but then just skirt around any form of personal accountability. Furthermore, in an interview with Polygon regarding Saltburn, Fennell says: “None of these people thinks of themselves as a bad person. It was the same with Promising Young Woman. It’s not interesting for me to make things that make moral judgments about people – all I’m interested in doing is understanding”.
We shouldn’t be too quick to praise films that delve into topics which have been in the mainstream of cultural discourse for decades, and which do so without any form of nuanced discussion. Indeed, both of Fennell’s films generally like to point to societal issues, but fail to actually challenge these issues through interrogating the reasons they occur or analysing those who compound these issues. Both of her films act as awareness-building exercises: yes the patriarchy is bad, and yes, the concepts of social class are ridiculous. Yet the buck stops at awareness-building, and if a film wishes to actually have any wider social impact we need to be willing to be more critical. In the same Polygon interview, Fennell states: “It’s really about having sympathy with everyone, always.” But do those with extravagant wealth – for example, Elon Musk, whose family propped him up with their wealth that was procured via exploiting others in their African emerald mines – deserve our sympathy? While we are all a product of our environment, Fennell doesn’t know how to hold anyone culpable for the production of that environment – including the wealthy, who more often than not have exploited others to gain wealth and in doing so further compounded class issues and our capitalist system. It’s not a leap to say her background has informed these views, with Fennell herself part of this wealthy group.
In Saltburn, the smash hit of last year, Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) attends Oxford University, and due to his lack of knowledge of upper-class mannerisms, fails to fit in. Oliver lies to Felix (Jacob Elordi) and also to the audience, imagining a new backstory for himself with parents who abuse substances and have mental health issues, in order to gain sympathy. Felix invites Oliver to his manor, the eponymous Saltburn, and a summer filled with lust, desire and dizzying wealth ensues. As the summer reaches its end, Felix and his family members begin succumbing to various tragic accidents. However, in a twist, the incidents are all revealed to be planned. Unfortunately, it’s an ending that doesn’t fare much better than Promising Young Woman. The movie ends with a near indictment of the one primary character who is not from the British aristocratic elite, Oliver, who has typical middle-class parents with a detached house in an estate. In a similar fashion to The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), a film which touches on similar ideas but in a far more accomplished manner, Oliver is revealed to have been a crazed premeditated murderer masquerading as a sweet and kind-hearted individual. He has been picking off the family one by one in order to seize the estate, dazzled by its extravagance. Fennell herself seems to be of the opinion that we all have desires to emulate the wealthy and privileged. She says, in response to Saltburn being an eat-the-rich film, “I think I consider it more ‘Lick the rich, suck the rich, and then bite the rich, and then swallow them.’” Her view of eating the rich means replacing the rich in their position. This narrow-minded perspective fails to recognise that many of us imagine worlds where vast excess and fortune, and strutting around in ridiculously sized manors, should be eradicated. Saltburn isn’t a sharp satire for those that want capitalism dismantled and a radical change in the way wealth is distributed. In Fennell’s own words, “it’s absolutely a satire, but it’s also a satire of those of us who want in.” Fennell represents the liberalism that spotlights the societal issues of today without contending with the solutions needed to rectify them.
Additionally, it should be stated that the popularity of Saltburn wasn’t due to its poor depictions of class, but rather its attempts to provoke the audience with scenes of a sexual nature. Our current generation is seemingly more open to the idea of sex than the act of sex itself. It’s easier to talk about sex now than it was in the past, but the minute any sex is shown on screen it becomes a driver of online discourse. The infamous scenes (such as Oliver licking Jacob Elordi’s semen in a bathtub, and later fornicating with his grave) were in actuality tacky and gauche, having very little rhyme or reason past provoking a reaction. These scenes provide another addition to the superficial yet engaging elements which have catapulted Fennell’s movies into popular culture. Film has always had sex, so why have so many of us been fooled into incredulous gasps when it occurs in Saltburn? Maybe her supposedly subversive endings are actually quite simplistic, thus enabling her to reach a wider mainstream audience not accustomed to depictions of sex on screen?
Simply deeming all criticism of Fennell as misogynistic fails to engage with how we can produce better art. There is skill in her directing, but the foundations of her films and the script have been convoluted misfirings. She has created films that have captured the attention of our Tiktok-addled brains, but do little to coax audiences to delve below the glossy exterior. In an age where virtue signalling seems to be all the rage, we are often unwilling to denounce that building awareness around issues without any form of nuance does little to result in any form of action or positive societal change; it’s no wonder that Fennell’s movies have catapulted her to fame. Ultimately, I just wish that her movies were better.
WORDS: William Reynolds
