Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) Review

"Critique is so limiting and emotionally draining."
-Morf Vandewalt



After discovering her neighbor, Ventril Dease (Alan Mandel), dead, Josephina (Zawe Ashton) finds a great deal of fantastic artwork in his apartment.  As Dease's art becomes the new hot commodity in the art world, critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to write a book on him.  As Morf delves into Dease's past, he discovers a dark and sinister secret about the artist and his work as everyone involved with the transactions of the art starts disappearing and dying.


What Works:

I went into Velvet Buzzsaw with very low expectations.  Several of my friends had seen the film and not cared for it, with one even calling it a 90's slasher movie made in 2019.  That aspect is something I enjoyed.  The low expectations coupled with my enjoyment of 90's slasher films actually allowed me to have a good time watching Velvet Buzzsaw.

I don't get art at all.  The high-class art elitists are one of my least favorite groups of people, so watching some of them get brutally murdered in this movie is very fun.  In most slasher movies, we see a group of partying teens getting killed off, but in this movie it's art gallery owners and critics.  It's a fun novelty and right up my alley.

The kills were very hit-or-miss.  Half of the kills in this movie were really fun.  A couple of them had solid gore and another was very creative and had to do with art.  It's a shame we didn't get more deaths that had to do with the world of art, but half of them were great.

Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic as our protagonist.  I wouldn't call Morf a likable guy, but he's the easiest to respect of the main characters and Gyllenhaal really sells the performance.  He's got a great energy and every scene he is in is enjoyable.

Also, the subplot involving Natalia Dyer's character, Coco, finding so many bodies is hilarious.


What Sucks:

As I mentioned above, the deaths were very hit-or-miss.  Half of the kills in this movie were very underwhelming.  Two of them were mostly off-screen with another that was just...lame.  I don't get how filmmakers haven't realized that the deaths in horror movies need to be creative or spectacular.  Nobody likes an off-screen death.

The characters in the film don't do very much to progress the story forward.  They mostly just react to what is happening around them, which is somewhat disappointing.  I prefer my horror movies to be about characters who realize they are in some sort of danger and actively do something to try and stop it.  Morf is the only character in the film to do anything proactive.  The rest of the characters are so wrapped up in their own drama that they just get killed off without realizing they were in danger, which is much less fun.

Finally, the ending of the film wasn't all that satisfying, especially in regards to Morf's story.  I feel like there was more they filmmakers could have done with wrapping up the plot around our main protagonist.  What we got there was underwhelming.


Verdict:

I went into Velvet Buzzsaw with low expectations and had a fun time.  It's great watching art snobs get killed off, some of the deaths were really fun, and Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic.  Not all of the deaths work, the story could have used more proactiveness on the character's part, and Morf's story is anticlimactic, but I enjoyed the film and, for the most part, it's got it going on.

 7/10: Good 

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