I’m thrilled I didn’t have the slightest clue what this movie was going in. I just knew it had buzz. When it begins at Oxford with a golden boy and an average guy, I wondered if it was going to be A Separate Peace type story, then I ping-ponged to other possibilities… and then it started to become abundantly clear what framework we were in.

The film stars mopey Barry Keoghan as the average guy who gets caught in the orbit of golden boy Jacob Elordi. Elordi comes from impossible wealth and has all the sycophants around him… but he adopts Keoghan and invites him to summer at his family estate. Let the games begin.

I’ve seen both of these actors before, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen them. Both are playing to their strengths so its not like they are stretching their archetypes very far, but this film is written so well that I realized there’s something very interesting about both of them as actors.

They are joined by Rosamund Pike knocking it out of the park as the idle rich mother who is ever so polite, but ever so catty and Richard Grant as the befuddled and clueless father. They are circled by additional cast doing great work… Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe. Plus Paul Duncan as the family butler who scared me every time he was on screen.

What formula the film follows I won’t reveal. I watched the trailer afterwards and I’m glad I missed it going in. It allowed for revelations and surprises that I wouldn’t have had the sick, sad pleasure of experiencing otherwise. If possible, I’d suggest that for you too.

The movie is devilish, twisted, and malignant… creating one character so skin crawling that he deserves an Oscar for Oozing. It’s a marvelous study in pushing the audience to see what we can watch without nervous laughter or deep-into-your-seatback cringe. All the credit to the courage it took to take the part and play the role so brazenly.

Also credit to the setting and filmmaking. Most of the film takes place in the impossibly rich manor, filmed with a kind of austere dreamlike wafting away from reality. The introduction of a karaoke machine and modern music in one scene is such a clash of realities that I could do nothing but admire the effect.

My only complaint is that the ending puts too fine a punctuation mark on what had technically been a bit nebulous. I would have preferred the film remain ambiguous, letting the audience imagine exactly what happened, instead of letting them dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. But it does let our skin-crawl a few extra minutes more so I’ll allow it (I just wish we got one extra parting shot of the butler… alas).

Damn good movie that exists in a familiar frame. I enjoyed discovering what it was… but even if you go in knowing, it’ll be well acted and just enough askew that it’ll still surprise (and make you deeply uncomfortable). Excellent work.

Score: 92