'Velvet Buzzsaw' (2019) Review (Spoilers)

Velvet Buzzsaw is a movie that popped out of nowhere and had many people excited when first announced in January. What many thought would be an intense gripping thriller is more of a work of satire than a horror movie of any sorts. Though the movie has thriller/horror concepts and scenes it never truly feels like that's what the film is supposed to be.

Before I get into more of the contents of the film, I would like to mention the animated intro at the beginning is extremely interesting and well done. The transition from animation to live action is a bit abrupt and distracting, but besides that it's notable for being an interesting way to start the film. The film follows Morph, an extremely respectable and established art critic played by Jake Gyllenhaal—which is, in my opinion, by far the best character. I very much like Gyllenhaal in this role; he exudes a level of smugness as the harsh egotistical art critic that I just adore seeing in this film. Most of the actors in this movie give good performances for what they are given to work with, but the film seems a bit inconsistent and messy at parts, something that annoyed me as the viewer is the amount of fade to blacks they had in this film, it seemed very redundant by the end of the film.

Director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) is at the helm of this movie and many of his past techniques are shown in this movie. His follow-shots are used immensely in this film especially near the beginning of the film, which is positive for the most part besides becoming repetitive, it shows an amount of skillful filmmaking. The satire/portrayal of the fine art industry is exceptionally entertaining and is one of the parts of the film that shines. As a Student currently enrolled in an art program, a lot of the exchanges about the fine arts are scarily familiar to what it is. It is an exaggeration of certain character types in the art community, but it is enjoyable none the less. The story does have slower parts for sure in it, so some of the middle areas of the movie are extremely drawn out and frankly boring. The film seems to understand its ridiculousness and makes sure the names of the characters fit there exact demeanor (Jon Don-don, Gretchen, Morph).

The concept though more satirical exposé of the ridiculous world of art then a horror film does truly hit some amazing concepts in its few horror moments and concepts. The kills/scares of Velvet Buzzsaw are, mostly, extremely creative and thought-provoking; it truly is one of the freshest concepts in the latest years of Hollywood. With all of the reboots and sequels being made today, an original concept is a rare but beautiful thing to see. Sadly, the film seems surprisingly low budget for a movie with a budget of 21 million dollars. It seemed more like a student film in certain areas, such as how the film used some technical aspects and some of the sets.

The film does a great bit of foreshadowing for future kills/scares, such as very briskly revealing Rene Russo's Rhodora was in a punk-rock group named Velvet Buzzsaw, then later shows that she has a tattoo on her neck of the band's logo which later is her demise. It shows the character of Gretchen becoming infatuated with this art piece named simply "sphere," later her fate coming to becoming stuck in the piece itself. This is effective storytelling, but there are parts that seem extremely rushed and just plain weird. The character of Coco played by stranger things actress Natalia Dyer is always in the wrong place at the wrong time! I don't know who cursed this girl with 18 years worth of bad luck, but oh my word. She keeps finding the dead people, like can it please not be her this time, oh nope it's her again. She across the whole film discovers the bodies of Jon Don-don, Gretchen, and morph. This girl can't catch a break! This seemed extremely repetitive in the film because she would find them then scream every time the exact same way. A plus side of the kills is you basically hate everyone and I believe that's completely intentional, the film seems to want to portray everyone as unlikable and kinda a jerk. This works awesome for the kills, but is a double-edged sword. If we don't care about the characters, we certainly just want to see them die and not talk for 75 percent of the movie. The movie takes its time with its kills and basically waits till the last 30 minutes to kill everyone off beside a few key characters such as the unlucky girl Coco. This is probably the best part of the movie. As much as I do enjoy the satirical aspect of it, I keep waiting for the horror aspects to come in, making the satire and exposition kind of a waiting line to the good stuff.

Something I actually adore in this film is its color correction. It's used to give the film a more vibrant pop art feel, which is subtle, but I very much appreciate this attention to detail. It adds so much atmosphere and personality to the beginning scenes exploring the art community and industry. That said the visual effects seem a bit lower quality than I believe originally intended. The effect that for some strange reason still bothers me is the effect on the tattoo that makes final Rhodora's imminent demise. The effect seems cheaply made. It may just be me, but it seemed a lot less professional than the scenes they showed in the trailer.

The end of the film seems extremely out of place and melancholy. The last five minutes do have an interesting scene where a man sells the paintings that everyone has been fussing about for five dollars, where they were selling them for thousands of dollars. It's an extremely thought-provoking scene that really caught my eye for the analogy it is placing in the scene. But overall, the ending fell completely flat for me. I felt nothing at the end, which usually means I'm indifferent about how I feel. The movie is good and had amazing concepts, but didn't follow through on my expectations of it.

Pros

• Animation opening
• Follow shots
• Jake Gyllenhaal and the rest of the cast
• Satire/portrayal of the fine art industry
• Kills/concepts
• Color correction
• Foreshadowing

Cons

• Messy/inconsistent
• Fade out used to often
• Slow spots in the story
• Low budget feel and effects
• Girl finds all the dead bodies repeatedly
• You hate everyone
• The ending seems out of place

Final Score: 6.5 out of 10 ⭐️