Velvet Buzzsaw

Dan Gilroy is an interesting filmmaker. Although his films' quality has gradually drop after the debut masterpiece Nightcrawler, none of it are conveyor-belt, safe and boring movies. The case is similar with his third outing Velvet Buzzsaw - a satirical horror flick taking place in an elite, upper-class art society.

The plot surrounds a group of main characters who work in the avant-garde art industry, and how their decision to make money off a mysterious dead person's artwork catalogue forms the rest of the story. Primary problem as to why the feature doesn't work is due to the ineffective horror; in other words, the lack of a tangible / formidable antagonist. It's hard to be afraid of… paintings, no matter how demented or terrible the materials, creator and story behind it is. Yes, Velvet Buzzsaw follows the exact tropes you'd see in most classic horror films - characters dying one-by-one in horrific ways, which is by far the most interesting aspect of the show, with the car accident, melting colors where Josephina (Zawe Ashton) becomes part of a graffiti, underground encounter with Hoboman and Gretchen's (Tony Collette) Sphere death followed by kid tourists visiting and thinking her lifeless body is part of the display gallery being notable character demises. But anytime obvious visual effects appear such as the monkeys coming to live to grab Bryson (Billy Magnussen), it immediately diminishes any fear audiences are supposed to feel.

Performances are good, especially Jake Gyllenhaal's. What elevates Velvet Buzzsaw slightly above your regular horror movies is it has a set of characters whom are all thematically connected to the story and to each other. And you could see their transformation beats, again, especially for Jake Gyllenhaal's character as the art critic! The soundproof room and bus hallucination scenes are good!

Technicality wise, Velvet Buzzsaw features some top-tier work! Most of the museum displays are unique and arousing! Regular family household piece and beach sand cursives are examples. Colors are sharp, production design is posh and the score is intriguing. Camerawork is breathtaking that you have to see all the aerial shots yourself to believe it!