VELVET BUZZSAW

 

 Title--  Velvet Buzzsaw

Release Year--  2019

Running Time--  1 Hour and 52 Minutes

Director--  Don Gilroy

Cast--  Jake Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Daveed Diggs, Zawe Ashton, Billy Magnussen, Natalia Dyer, Toni Collette, Tom Sturridge, Alan Mandell, Rob Brownstein, Marco Rodriguez, Sedale Threatt Jr.

When unearthly and tortured looking paintings by an unknown artist are found and sold, a supernatural force takes revenge on the people that profited from his work.

Art critic, Morf Vanderwalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), is attending an art exhibition in Miami Florida with his friend Josephina (Zawe Ashton) when she learns that her boyfriend is cheating on her.  At the end of a long night and due to Morf feeling unfulfilled with his boyfriend Ed (Sedale Threatt Jr.), he and Josephina begin a sexual relationship.  Upon returning home to Los Angeles, Josephina is late to work when she finds that a man by the name of Vetril Dease (Alan Mandell) that lives in her building has died in the hallway.  When she finally does arrive to work at the Haze gallery, her boss Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) (nicknamed the Velvet Buzzsaw from her former days in a rock band), punishes her for her constant tardiness.

When Josephina returns home she is checking the mail when she strikes up a conversation with a man that is removing the name of the dead man from the mailboxes.  He comments that he has seen inside the apartment and there is a ton of art in there but the dead man left explicit orders to burn all of his work.  Josephina makes the excuse that she is going to find the man’s cat and enters the apartment.  She is enamored by the man’s work and knowing that it is all going to be destroyed, she steals all the artwork.

Rhodora finds out about the artwork and becomes fascinated by Dease’s work and decides to exhibit some of the work, telling Josephina that she could make her very rich.  Morf decides with Rhodora and Josephina’s approval to make a book about Dease’s work.  The exhibit is an instant success and soon Morf’s gallery friend Gretchen (Toni Collette), artists Piers (John Malkovich) and Damrish (Daveed Diggs) and rival gallery owner Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge) all become enamored with the works of Dease as well.

Morf begins researching Vetril Dease’s life and finds that he had a troubled childhood that led to him killing his father.  This coupled with the growing mental illness that Dease dealt with was the catalyst for his art.  Soon, everyone that has started to profit from the sale of Dease’s art or story begins to die horrible deaths.

This movie, where to begin?  I liked the trailer but didn’t care so much for the film.  It felt like it was trying to be a lot of different things at once.  A thriller trying to be a horror film?  A drama trying to be a dark comedy?  Pick one and go with it, don’t travel back and forth between genres, it only confuses the viewer.  There were several times that the film used jump scares to try to get the point across when they probably should have just built the suspense up and let the scene do the work producing the scare.

I liked Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance in this film, although it could do nothing to save it overall.  Another person I liked (that I did not mention in the film synopsis) was Natalia Dyer who played Coco.  I can see her going places, keep your eyes open for her in the future.  I really wanted to like Zawe Ashton but her character was just dull and the fact that she goes from mild mannered at the start of the film all the way up to an uptight bitch toward the end was a huge turnoff, although that’s not her fault, it was the way the character was written, she just had the unfortunate role of having to perform said character.

I guess when it is all said and done, I didn’t know that the art world was so cut throat but then again, anyone that strives to be the best at their profession is probably as cut throat as they get.  Just one last question to leave at your feet...here, in 2019 (the year this film was released) what important person still carries around a FLIP PHONE???  Watch this one for yourself and see if your opinion differs from mine just Don’t Forget the Popcorn!