EMERALD FENNELL | UK | 2023 | 127 MIN | ENGLISH
Newly arrived at Oxford University, scholarship student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan, PFF31’s The Banshees of Inisherin) has trouble finding his place among the school’s privileged elites. So it comes as a surprise when he catches the attention of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), a wealthy Adonis who lords over a glittering social circle. When Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s lavish country estate for the summer, the outsider must quickly adapt to the strange ways of Felix’s aristocratic family, including father Sir James (Richard E. Grant), mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), and troubled sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). Yet Oliver might not be as naïve and unassuming as he initially appears. Fans of Fennell’s Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman won’t be disappointed by her bold follow-up, which trains her gutsy vision and lacerating satirical wit on England’s ruling class. Nodding to a literary heritage including Brideshead Revisited and The Talented Mr. Ripley and adding a transgressive, contemporary edge, Fennell has concocted a visually stunning, often shocking, narratively audacious new take on the Gothic thriller.
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant