Review: VELVET BUZZSAW
Poor Netflix. Time and time again their Original Films seem to largely disappoint. From the meandering sci-fi philosophies of MUTE, to THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX'S unintentionally hilarious deep space horror. Shame on me then, as each time a new original film is announced for the streaming service, I'm convinced this'll be the film that sets them apart as an acquirer of real cinema. Unfortunately, Dan Gilroy's VELVET BUZZSAW is the streaming service's most baffling release yet, managing to be both agonizingly boring and kind of fun at the same time.
Set against the Los Angeles art exhibition scene, Gilroy's Buzzsaw focuses on Morf (Jake Gyllenhaal), a flamboyant art critic who is fiercely proud of his critical analysis as well as his social standing among artistic circles. When Morf's love interest Josephina (Zawe Ashton) discovers a wealth of lost paintings in her deceased neighbour Dease's apartment, she quickly assesses their value and decides to branch out and sell them directly to fellows exhibitors. Morf, while immediately taken by the paintings, begins to see a pattern of violent, unexplained incidents around the art and begins an investigation into Dease's past.
Right out of the gate, VELVET BUZZSAW is immediately intriguing with it's weirdly cool title and a terrific concept of a madman's paintings taking on a life of their own. It's weird then that the movie only uses Dease's paintings as a MacGuffin of sorts; a plot point to get the ball rolling and get all the characters at each other's throats. This isn't really a horror film. It's not really a drama either. It's this weird mash-up of both genres that doesn't really work. Prior to the supernatural events in the film, VELVET BUZZSAW is this colourful-yet-scathing attack on the art world and it's ridiculous sense of self-importance. It's funny at times and draws you in based on the complications between it's characters. But once Josephina finds the lost artwork, Gilroy's script takes a complete left turn and features all sorts of grizzly set-pieces amidst an investigation into Dease's dark past.
The sharp tonal left turn would be fine, if it nailed the horror aspects, but Gilroy just...can't seem to embrace them? Sure, there's tonnes of blood and gore, but the scares are half-baked to the point that I'm wondering if the intent was to make them scary at all? And if that was the case, then why have the story lead there? Why not keep to the critique of the art world?
Gyllenhaal's performance is uncharacteristically tame here too, while Zawe Ashton plays her fierce character like an entitled teenager. These are tough characters to watch as each and every one of them is as vapid as it gets and the lack of moral comeuppance certainly doesn't help the film either. The only character even mildly tolerable is Coco (Natalie Dyer) but her arc ultimately makes her just a passive voyeur, watching all the mad shit unfold.
VELVET BUZZSAW is a schizophrenic movie. It's two things at once and in the end it doesn't do either that well. If you're looking for a horror film, it won't scratch that itch. It's a shame to say, but perhaps Netflix's truly great original release is just around the corner, because this definitely isn't it.