The film centers around Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) as he tries to navigate the awkwardness of his freshman year at Oxford. His social life seems to be a series of awkward missteps. He brings on his own social demise when he suggests that his tutorial partner, Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), is lazy, and we can’t help but feel some class tensions as the wealthy Farliegh neglects his work and breezes through university. However, Oliver’s luck turns around when he befriends hotshot Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), Farleigh’s cousin, through a chance encounter. Felix takes friendly pity on Oliver and invites him to spend the summer at his family’s palatial estate, Saltburn. 

Tensions build as Oliver comes to realize that Felix sees him as his play-thing charity case, and Oliver develops an unhealthy attachment to Felix and the lavish lifestyle he represents. The lines between envy, hatred and sexual attraction blur in a creep-fest of turns and strange behavior, and as the film wears on, we get the sense that Oliver is not all who he says he is. 

“No spoilers” is basically the hippocratic oath of movie reviewers, but I must say, some major twists occur, and these twists are what seem to have the film community divided on the merits of “Saltburn.” From the beginning, the film takes on a sort of psychological feel. The emotional close ups of faces and hands, Oliver and Felix’s little secrets, and the Oxford setting all contribute to this intellectual and intimate feel, and we think the whole film is going to be about understanding the psychology of these characters. But when the twist comes, some people, namely my CAMS major friends and an Airplane Mode blog I read, feel that all the character building has been undone and their time has been wasted.

While I definitely was at first jarred by certain revelations, I was able to appreciate that feeling as something intentionally conjured by the director. From the beginning, it’s hard to tell who to root for. Oliver is framed as the scrappy underdog, but we also get a sense that his social ostracization may have more to do with his self-loathing than his socioeconomic status. Felix naturally has the villainous qualities of being rich, popular and out-of-touch, but otherwise, he is quite affable and generous. The turns in the film prevent the story from being a simple allegory on class struggle of the virtuous poor vs the fat cats, but instead captures how capitalism and greed create an amoral landscape that pull every class stratum into its web. This move away from a direct allegory also seems to show significant development in Emerald Fennell’s directing — her best known film, “Promising Young Woman” being an excessively on-the-nose-piece about a woman taking revenge on sexual-predators. 

While I will defend the twists themselves, I can see how some viewers felt they dampened the experience. The sense of an impending twist can take us out of the film if carried on too long, but foreshadowing and discomfort are important techniques in a film. Critical opinion of “Saltburn” is likely linked to our underlying ideas about pretension and “artsy” films. Oftentimes films touted as artsy feel like they were made to intentionally confuse us or throw in twists to give the illusion of artistry, relying on shock value to hide flaws. Critics of “Saltburn” likely feel the film is one of those pieces, going through the motions of an artsy film, but not really delivering. But I feel that its twists deepened meaning in the film, the false characterizations of the first half setting up exciting revelations in the second. In all, it’s a film with flaws, but enjoyable and worth the watch — especially if you like graves. 

Focusing on her roommate’s interests, she displays a lot of “biology and environmental biology” content and some feminist references. She points out some of her favorite memes, one being the Wikipedia page of the “bongfish” and the other a feminist Leonardo Decaprio meme pictured.. She says the printout on her door that best encapsulates her is one that reads “Due Tomorrow, Do Tomorrow,” laughing and saying it serves as her “motto.”

Cabrera describes another favorite she gifted to her friend in Munger: “I printed this meme for her, and it’s like a picture of this cleaning product that is like ‘30% thicker, and cleans 3X better!’” followed by the caption “‘When you change your wife for a Latina!’”

What she likes about her door is that “it gives everybody a laugh.” “I’m a TA,” she says, “so I work with a lot of students” and they say “‘Is that your door!? … I see your memes, they make me laugh!’”

Cabrera urges others to put up decorations of their own. “Whenever [there is] something, I stop to read, and I think people do the same — It’s really fun — if you want to decorate your door, just put memes!”

Not too far from Cabrera lives Sophia “Fee” Puertas ’23, who uses her door to share Noodle the pug’s “Bones” or “No Bones” forecast.

 For those not familiar, Noodle the pug gained internet fame on the platform TikTok in late 2021. Each morning, Noodle’s owner, Jonathan Graziano, lifts him out of bed, and if Noodle decides to flop back down the day is declared a “No Bones,” or lazy day. If Noodle stands, it is a “Bones Day” and high productivity and energy is to be expected.

Puertas recalls, “When I first found Noodle the pug on tiktok I got kind of obsessed because I have a pet pug at home, my family has always had pugs … I was following along with the daily TikToks … and I wanted a decoration on my door somehow to say whether it was a bones or no bones day. I’m on Twitter and people have actually made a lot of these different signs, so I printed a cute one off and just put it on my door at the peak of Noodle TikTok.”

Though she has not been keeping up to date recently, Puertas said she got many positive reactions on what she aptly called Noodle’s “horoscope”:

“I can hear people outside my dorm sometimes comment like ‘oh my gosh it’s a Bones day!’ … I’m right across from my dorm kitchen and there were some people that would check it every day when they were making food.”

Puertas closes the interview with information about her own pug back home. “She is named Velma, she is two years old and likes to wear clothes and she’s just adorable!”

Though not quite a substitute for her Velma, Puertas likes that her sign “reminds me of [my pug] at home.” 

Roommates Araceli Muñoz ’25 and Dani Gonzalez ’25 take a different approach. Instead of memes or forecasts, they spread joy through holiday decorations and candy. 

Gonzalez describes how they first got the idea, saying “It was Halloween. We were at CVS — that’s when we found the spider webs.” “We hung spiderwebs all across our door and hung up candy and put up little spider rings” continues Araceli. “Back home, I did this to my fence … and I was like we gotta do it!” 

Muñoz recalls an exciting interaction after the decorations were put up. “I was in my room and I heard someone go ‘Oh my god!’ I heard them go away, but then I heard them walk back and they brought someone to come with them! You could hear them taking pictures. … It was really cool! … That’s why we keep putting up candy, because it’s kind of nice to know people walk by and go ‘yeah, I love this door!’”

After their initial success, Muñoz and Gonzalez continue to decorate their door for different holidays. When asked which their favorite to decorate for, both cried out in unison “CHRISTMAS!”

“We had a big ass bow on our door … like the size of our heads. And we had streamers, and tiny little elves on the shelves hanging on,” says Muñoz. Gonzalez adds that they put stuffed animals on their door frame, as well as stockings, snowflakes, and peppermints for people to take.

In addition to their candy and decorations, the pair often writes witty polls on their whiteboard for students to respond to. 

Muñoz remembers “being so excited to see everyone interacting, because we didn’t know if people would actually do it!” Gonzalez shares some memorable responses to the poll, such as “knowing the couple will eventually break up” as a response to “What’s the best part about Valentine’s Day?”

As the interview came to a close, Muñoz and Gonzalez began discussing potential St. Patrick’s plans, which will not be spoiled here. They asked that we include their emails in this article — am123@wellesley.edu and dg100@wellesley.edu. Anyone wanting help decorating doors or planning parties is welcome to reach out! And while we ask you not to disturb them, they said people are welcome to check out their door, Cazenove Hall room 203.

“Does anyone know why the first floor smells like gas …? just wondering if it’s a safety concern.”

Cazenove House President Charity Daramola ’22 saw the messages while off campus at a concert and notified Campus Police, Emergency Facilities and Community Director Paula Queenan about the situation immediately, all of whom responded within 10 minutes. 

“There was some issue about whether we want people to evacuate, and my instinct is, let’s evacuate to be safe,” Daramola said. “You never know.”

At 7:42 p.m., Daramola issued the first of many emails urging students to “go outside of Caz.”

Taylor Quaye ’24, a Cazenove resident, was in the shower at the time of the email and did not have access to her phone.

“Someone walked in the bathroom and was like ‘Hey, I don’t know who this is, but we have to evacuate,’” Quaye said. “And so I just started panicking. I was like ‘Oh no, are we gonna die?’ -– I mean that sounds a little bit dramatic, but the way people were talking was making it seem very intense.”

She said she felt very alarmed about getting out in time and grabbed chargers and other supplies, fearing the evacuation would be long. She was especially worried because she had to evacuate her roommate’s cat. (She asked us to note that the cat’s “name is Oscar, and he is a menace to society,” which added to her difficulty in removing him.) 

She brought Oscar to Pomeroy but had concerns about the safety of students in the dorm due to its connection and proximity to Cazenove.

Daramola made note of this concern, but said they were operating under the impression that the building’s systems were not linked. They were quickly informed that Cazenove did not have the type of system that could lead to a natural gas leak. 

Casey Bayer, director of media relations at Wellesley College, released a statement that “the Cazenove building does not have any natural gas supply,” and thus there could not be a gas leak. However, staff were still sent to determine the cause of the smell.

Daramola wrote in a follow-up email that the culprit was determined to be hydronic oil from the elevator room. At 9:20 p.m., Daramola informed their residents via email that it was safe to return but not to use the elevator as it was in need of repair.

Quaye stated that the situation is “indicative of a bigger issue” regarding maintenance. She says the elevator situation could probably have been prevented, a point that Daramola echoed. Quaye pointed to additional problems with the water fountain on Cazenove’s third floor and the washers and dryers and said more “urgency” could be placed on addressing maintenance concerns on campus.

“Given the resources we have, [the gas leak scare] was handled correctly,” Quaye said.