Velvet Buzzsaw

February 11, 2019 at 6:05 pm | Posted in 2019 | Leave a comment
Tags: Comedy, Daveed Diggs, Horror, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, Movie Review, Natalia Dyer, Rene Russo, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton

◊ ◊ ½

When Dan Gilroy exploded onto the scene with 2014’s “Nightcrawler,” I took notice. This was his first attempt at directing, and he had also written the script. The film was deeply disturbing and was anchored by an amazing performance by Jake Gyllenhaal. It also felt completely real. “Velvet Buzzsaw” is now Gilroy’s third film he has written and directed (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.” was his second one). This one is also dark and creepy, and built around a fantastic performance by Gyllenhaal. But, it strays far outside the realm of the real. Gilroy delves into horror, attempting to explore the genre in new ways. As I have mentioned before, horror has been going through a bit of a renaissance over the past 5 years, as new directors take the genre in exciting directions. You can tell that Gilroy wants to be part of that tribe, but ends up falling short. The idea of placing a horror movie in the art world has brilliant possibilities. The way that world arbitrarily chews up and destroys so many people feels ripe for clever commentary. However, underneath that promising surface, the horror ends up being terribly banal. That said, Gyllenhaal is fantastic as Morf Vandewalt. His every gesture and facial expression informs this character. He is a tremendously underrated physical actor. His characterization of Morf is the best thing in this film. There are also some clever lines and more than a few dark chuckles. Just the names of the characters are sly commentary: Morf Vandewalt, Rhodora Haze, Jon Dondon, Vetril Dease. The film could be so clever when it wasn’t trying to be so predictable. Every time it strayed into the horror, everything happened exactly as it has in so many other supernatural thrillers. As a concept, it seems brilliant and, in execution, it gets most of the way there, only to fall apart around the key element of a horror movie: it just wasn’t scary. It was clever and entertaining in so many ways and, even when people were dying in pools of paint or blood, it was always delicious fun. It just wasn’t scary. I guess it depends on how much that matters to you.