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Velvet Buzzsaw




The moment any of these characters spoke, I knew I didn't like them. I guess they fit into the egocentric pompous world of art and art criticism and I get the irony of me sitting here critiquing a piece of film art too. The thing about this movie is that it is not as clever as it thinks it is and Gilroy wants to satirize the art world, but he doesn't lean far enough one way or the other while he looks at it.

Gilroy treats us to his satirical look at the art world with a veil of horror presented before it. The people that criticize/exploit the art are later killed by them. It's like The Happening but with paintings. While Velvet Buzzsaw doesn't stoop to the depths of the trash heap that was The Happening, it doesn't distinguish itself from anything else either. The best thing about this movie is the title, it evokes a feeling that the film never manages to achieve. What that feeling is? I don't know, I just like the contradictory edginess to it.

Gyllenhaal and Russo both were in Gilroy's Nightcrawler, which is leaps and bounds a better crafted piece of art. Gyllenhaal plays an art critic by the name of Morf. Let that name sink in. The film has a decent cast, Toni Collette and John Malkovich show up in smaller roles, adding just a bit of flair.

One character walks into a room and sees a pile of garbage, calling it brilliant. The response from another is that it's not art....it's literally just trash sitting there waiting to be taken out. It's obvious to see what Gilroy is getting at here, playing that scene as a joke for the audience at the same time. Yet there is a weird seriousness to the film that contradicts a lot of what it wants to mock. Leaving me with a confused and disappointed feeling by the end. For a film with a title like Velvet Buzzsaw, this needed to be more edgy.