Black Comedy – Matthew Liedke on Film

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell is the duo I didn’t know I needed until 2026.

The latest film to feature the Academy Award nominee and the Oscar winner is from writer/director Martin McDonagh. His follow-up to “The Banshees of Inisherin” (which made the Top 10 list of 2022 from yours truly) stars the two as a pair of CIA agents and is set in 1973, just before the September coup d’etat in Chile.

The veteran agent Chris (Malkovich), and his younger partner Lee (Sam Rockwell), have played an important role in the coup. However, Chris is dealing with a terminal illness, and wants to spend his final days in Easter Island for a last vacation. Lee obliges to join him on a final getaway, but even on a supposed vacation, elements of their espionage background pop up.

“Saltburn” is an appropriate title for this flick, because things get really salty, and then some.

Set in 2006, “Saltburn” opens at Oxford University where young student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is just beginning to attend on a scholarship. He initially struggles to fit in among many wealthier peers, but manages to eventually befriend another student, Felix (Jacob Elordi).

After forming a friendship, Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at his family’s mansion, titled Saltburn. There, Oliver experiences parties, sex, drugs and all of the other things available to the rich. However, the setting becomes tense as Oliver begins showing darker tendencies.

Continue reading “REVIEW: Excessive depravity doesn’t salvage ‘Saltburn’”