Movie Review: Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw

Director: Dan Gilroy

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, John Malkovich

Rating: R

Runtime: 113 minutes

Dan Gilroy, writer and director of one of my all-time favorite movies Nightcrawler, pairs up with Jake Gyllenhaal again in their latest movie Velvet Buzzsaw. A glimpse into the pretentious world of art, Velvet Buzzsaw is satirical horror that attempts to parody the shallowness of people in a world where the image you present is everything by showing them what happens when the art they hold so dear becomes life-threatening. I say “attempt” because in my opinion this movie doesn’t do much in terms of thought-provoking storytelling and instead falls into the realm of schlocky B-movie horror with the shell of a good idea.

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the best actors in the business today who constantly ties himself to bad film after bad film. Perhaps it’s because he finds himself intrigued by the characters in the script, but whatever the reason I wish this guy would attach himself to better films more often because he’s too good to be in movies like Southpaw and Prince of Persia. Even here as Morf (yes, his name is Morf. I couldn’t get over it either) Vandewalt, Gyllenhaal gives a great performance and his scenes in the movie are the most enjoyable. Gyllenhaal is an actor who really becomes each of his characters, from changing his physical appearance to the way he carries himself that really makes me believe each role.

Another positive of the movie is the premise, which I really was intrigued by. While taking shots at the art world isn’t necessarily an original idea, it’s something that could make for an interesting topic if done well and with intelligence. The idea of killer art is interesting on its own, but if it’s also making a statement it could be really special. The first 20 or so minutes of the film are intriguing; we’re shown a cast of diverse characters all linked together through the art scene who seem nice to each other but are slowly revealed to each have their own agendas. And the casting is great as well. Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo (who was also in Nightcrawler), Toni Collette, Daveed Diggs, and John Malkovich are all actors I greatly admire who give great to decent performances in this film.

But from here, things start to fall apart for me. Once the first death happens, the movie takes a very quick turn, from being a satire on the art world to a cheap horror flick. From the camera work to the special effects, the quality in the horror scenes (with the exception of one chase scene involving Gyllenhaal near the end) is a significant drop from the rest of the movie and feels very strange. Netflix lately has gotten a lot of great original titles on its streaming platform, and there are plenty of times where I’ve thought to myself, “I wish I could have seen this in theaters because it’s so good.” But with Velvet Buzzsaw, it’s very much a straight-to-home release despite the all-star cast.

While the cast is great, the movie has too many characters to focus on all of them enough (Diggs and Malkovich are basically glorified cameos with how little they appear), and even then most of the characters are so one-note and unlikable it’s hard to appreciate a lot of the acting or really care about the characters when bad things start happening. While making them unlikable was definitely intentional, the kills aren’t nearly enjoyable enough to feel any real satisfaction when these greedy self-centered pricks bite the dust.

I did like the initial premise, but the execution of the plot left a lot to be desired. There was a lot that was introduced but not explored (the mythos of the painter, for example, became cliched the more we learned about it), and a lot of the sequences of events left me feeling very unsatisfied in their resolutions.

Velvet Buzzsaw was such an underwhelming viewing after films like Nightcrawler and Roman J. Israel, Esq.  Despite all the things it does well (namely Gyllenhaal’s performance), it’s not even close to enough to make this an enjoyable movie. To see a director I know can do so much better put out something this sloppy is almost a slap to the face. Gilroy, I know you aren’t reading this, but in the future,  I hope you give us something worthy of your talents and worthy of your fanbase. We’re all better than this.