A group of cynical art dealers and collectors is hunted down and butchered by the spirit of a psychotic artist who painted hundreds of horrific scenes.
HORROR
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Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)Written and Directed by Dan Gilroy
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton, Toni Collette, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, John Malkovich, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen |
Velvet Buzzsaw is a strange movie that's, oddly enough, about critiquing and how cynical it is to critique art. Art is ultimately subjective. I think we can all agree on that. I'm aware of the irony that I'm reviewing this movie, but here we go. The film is a smart satire on the modern art community of Los Angeles, the so-called hipster critics who have no real taste and are slaves to trends and the ever-changing "next big thing." What this film does is provide a scenario in which that "next big thing" is deadly, dangerous, and eager to kill. Lo and behold, nobody tries to stop it because that would harm the sale price.
Gyllenhaal plays Morf Vandewalt, a jaded art critic who makes a living tearing down newcomers and smarting off about it to his artsy friends. Russo plays Rhodora Haze, owner of an art gallery who is respected in the community but despised in secret by pretty much everyone. When her protege, Josephina (Ashton) finds a cache of monstrous paintings by a man in her apartment building who died, Rhodora and Josephina market the artist, Vetril Dease, as the next big thing. But something in Dease's paintings is evil and people around them start dying horrific deaths. The film is loaded with unlikable characters who you don't mind seeing die creatively. Velvet Buzzsaw is an entertaining satire that destroys the absurdity of the art community and also acts as a solid, grisly horror movie at times. It's a Netflix original that vanished after its release and never really nabbed an audience, and I get that. It's definitely an acquired taste and most people may find it pretentious. But I found it to be really smart, and the performances were great, even if every character is a spiteful little shit. |