Velvet Buzzsaw
While it has a game cast and offers some fun twists on typical horror-thriller scenarios, Velvet Buzzsaw makes for a relatively hollow satire.
Dan Gilroy ’s third effort as a author - film director , Velvet Buzzsawhas a few thing in common with his breakout featureNightcrawler . Obviously , the film reunify him with that movie ’s run Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo ( who ’s also married to Gilroy ) , but the connection between the two ladder deeper than that . Both film take place in Los Angeles and follow unscrupulous characters who work the suffering of others for commercial profit . The idea is more literal inNightcrawler- which critiques unethical photojournalism and how consumer demand fuels sensationalized news coverage - butVelvet Buzzsawis equally happy to spit members of the modern art scene for their own self - swear out deportment . Unfortunately , the results are less engaging this time around . While it has a game cast and offer up some fun twists on distinctive horror - thriller scenario , Velvet Buzzsawmakes for a relatively hollow satire .
Velvet Buzzsawfollows several player in L.A. ’s contemporary art world , let in : Morf Vandewalt ( Gyllenhaal ) , a celebrated art critic whose review have made as many artists ' careers as they ’ve broken ; Rhodora Haze ( Russo ) , a successful artistic production gallery possessor who leave behind her life sentence as a disaffected punk rocker behind her age ago ; Josephina ( Zawe Ashton ) , Rhodora ’s assistant and someone eager to carve out a slice of the artwork earthly concern pie for herself ; and Gretchen ( Toni Collette ) , an graphics museum conservator who ’s ready to move to the private sphere and the bigger paydays that expect her there . All four move in and out of each other ’s life-time on a daily basis , as do the artists who make their living selling their study to the highest - paying customers on the market .
Everything changes when Josephina ’s neighbor - a withdrawn old military man known as Dease - passes away , leave behind a trove of paintings that most everyone seems to notice transfixing and attractively macabre ( if also more than a little perturbing ) . Despite Dease ’s stipulations that all of his art be destroyed after his death , Josephina and Rhodora capitalise on his raging - selling work , all while Morf looks into the painter ’s mystical past tense in an endeavor to infer who he was and where his creation came from . However , as Morf uncovers more and more disturbing truths about Dease , the man ’s painting seemingly initiate coming to life for real … and begin punishing those who ’ve used them for personal gain .
Part of the problem is that Gilroy’sVelvet Buzzsawscript tends to be on the nose with its observations of the art cosmos ’s superficiality and avarice . It also seems to run out of new things to say on those matter by the ending of its first one-half , at which point the movie in full transitions from being a misanthropic caustic remark into a slasher motion picture where the " cause of death " takes on the form of graphics across a smorgasbord of mediums . luckily , this is when things bulge to become more entertaining , especially asVelvet Buzzsawbegins to sweep up the inherent trashiness of its premiss with its horror - thriller set piece ( though , fair monition : do n’t watch the movie ’s trailer , unless you ’re okay with being spoiled for all the honest one ) . At the same time , the film never leans into the goofiness of its situations as much as it could and end up feel a bit like a pretentiousFinal Destinationfor it .
In general , the case drama here leaves something to be want as well . It ’s not a matter of the film ’s various players being too unappealing either;Nightcrawler , after all , sport some really despicable protagonists , but they were compelling to watch in action . That ’s not really the case with the people inVelvet Buzzsaw , none of whom really rise above feel like caricatures despite the mold ’s willingness to be as wickedly shrewd , scheming , and back - stabbing as the movie ’s script calls on them to be . That goes double for the stick out crew , which includes seasoned actor like John Malkovich - as a disillusioned artist who ’s struggled since he gave up drinking - as well as foretell endowment on the wage hike in Daveed Diggs , Bill Magnussen , andStranger Things ' Natalie Dyer . Sadly , the moving-picture show terminate up giving them astonishingly little to do on the way to its finish .
Nevertheless , Velvet Buzzsawmakes for a complimentary addition to Gilroy ’s explorations of Los Angeles ' subcultures inNightcrawlerand his soph movement , Roman J. Israel , Esq . The picture was shoot by Gilroy ’s trusted DP Robert Elswit and does a nice task of capturing the inherent creepiness of the clean warehouses where most of L.A. ’s nontextual matter picture gallery are hive away - not to mention , the threatening nature of many of the real exhibits . Costume designers Trish Summerville ( Red Sparrow ) and Isis Mussenden ( On the Basis of Sex ) also have fun dressing the moving picture ’s plaster bandage in clothes that instance their dresser and ego - interest , without seeming out of tone with the film at large . If anything , it feels likeVelvet Buzzsawcould have go further with these element and played up their staginess more .
That , in a nutshell , is the overriding issuing withVelvet Buzzsaw : it has a number of promising component that sense half - bake or in need of additional refinement . This has been something of a repeat issue with Netflix motion picture in general , e.g. they have potential on paper but their execution is more or less absent overall . At the same time , however , Gilroy’sRoman J. Israel , Esq.was also criticized for being puddle and lacking a strong through - line ; which is to say , the problem with his third feature are ( unfortunately ) part of a trend now . Of course , there ’s nothing to prevent the filmmaker from ironing out more of the wrinkles in his next projection , while still succeeding in all the same ways that he did with his second and third offerings .
Admittedly , though , Velvet Buzzsawwas always going to be a tricky sell no matter what , interpret as a supernatural horror movie irony of the contemporary art world is not necessarily something that ’s drop dead to appeal to the wad . Those whoareactually interested in such a cinema may require to determine it out on Netflix all the same , and may recover themselves more forgiving of its fault in Light Within of its fun performance and black humor . That goes double for those look to bestow another movie to their collection of weird Jake Gyllenhaal projects likeNocturnal Animalsand Netflix ’s ownOkja(to name but a couple ) .
TRAILER
Velvet Buzzsawis now available for streaming through Netflix . It is 112 minutes long and is rated R for force , terminology , some sexuality / nudeness , and abbreviated drug utilization .
Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical pitch-black clowning from director and author Dan Gilroy . The picture show centers on Morf Vandewalt , played by Jake Gyllenhaal , a Miami artwork critic who becomes involve with a museum haunted by the life of Vetril Dease , an creative person whose painting were stolen after he passed away in his flat .
Rene Russo and Zawe Ashton in Velvet Buzzsaw
