Movie Review - Velvet Buzzsaw

Jake Gyllenhaal made a name for himself by playing a weird character in the quasi-horror flick Donnie Darko (2001). He was only 20 years old, practically a teenager. He started toward a leading man career after that. People even noted his sex appeal, particularly after Brokeback Mountain (2005), which got him his Oscar nomination. His "leading man" career though never took off. He's done a lot of interesting films, the majority of them critically-acclaimed, but none that have been a box office hit. He's a movie star, but one just below people like Leonardo DiCaprio or Bradley Cooper. He's gotten more notice for his independent or art-house films lately of which this is one.

He's back to playing a quirky character as he did in Donnie Darko and more recently in Okja (2017). Some might compare Gyllenhaal's character here to his character in Nightcrawler (2014), which is the previous film he did with this film's writer-director, Dan Gilroy. His character in Nightcrawler was a sociopath, so the comparisons can't really come.

A closer comparison would be to Gyllenhaal in Nocturnal Animals (2016). He played a writer who was involved with a woman who worked in an art gallery. That film by Tom Ford was about writing as an art-form in minor ways. It was more about the relationships between Gyllenhaal and his ex-wife, as well as about his manhood when it comes to relating to other more brutal men. Despite having a woman in the center and as the protagonist, the film was probably more about masculinity than it was perhaps a woman in the art-world or in relation to the expectations of her mother.

Gilroy's film here is a bit of an anti-Nocturnal Animals. It's less about masculinity and tips the theme more toward femininity. This is most likely because Gilroy puts women more in the forefront and more women in the forefront than Tom Ford did three years ago. Gilroy focuses more on women than he did in his previous work. Like his previous work though, which was a kind of dark, satirical look at a niche business that has wider implications to the culture-at-large, this film is also arguably a dark, satirical look at a niche business.

However, I'm not convinced that this film's satirical look has wider implications to the culture-at-large. Again, Gilroy's film is about the art-world, so there's always that gamble. Gilroy seems to be attempting to bridge the gap between what is a niche business that only the very wealthy in this country indulge and what's happening to the common man on the street. Unfortunately, I don't think Gilroy is successful in bridging that gap.

He touches upon oft-touched issues regarding art versus commerce. He does briefly venture into issues regarding art that comes from pain or trauma. He was setting up an argument that's very topical and very relevant to today, which is enjoying or profiting off art that comes from someone who has engaged in despicable or even criminal acts. Gilroy seems to come on the side of denouncing that or saying how destructive that can be, using horror or even slasher film tropes, but whatever message he was conveying gets a little muddled here.

Rene Russo (Get Shorty and The Thomas Crown Affair) stars as Rhodora Haze, the owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles. She used to be an artist herself but she's now a curator and exhibitor of art by other people. She has a tattoo on the back of her neck of a buzzsaw that is labeled "velvet." However, when it comes to tools, she's a bit of a battle-axe, not that far from her character in Nightcrawler. It's not clear how important art is to her from a creative standpoint. She seems more concerned with making money off it.

Zawe Ashton (Nocturnal Animals) co-stars as Josephina, an employee at Rhodora's art gallery. She's a bit of a protégé of Rhodora. She doesn't look up to Rhodora but in various ways, she wants to be like Rhodora. She wants to curate great art and make millions off it. One day, she discovers that an old man has died in the apartment above hers. She looks inside his apartment and finds that he was a lonely, tortured artist who produced a trove of amazing paintings. She wants to monetize those paintings.

Gyllenhaal plays Morf Vandewalt, an art critic whose also into pilates and Peloton. Despite being in a relationship with a very handsome man, he becomes obsessed with Josephina and virtually in love with her. He gets into a relationship with her and wants to write a book about the dead artist. He begins to investigate the dead artist's life and learns disturbing things, as disturbing things start to happen, particularly mysterious disappearances and deaths. He then begins to question if the paintings should be monetized.

Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine and The Sixth Sense) also co-stars as Gretchen, an art advisor who leaves her job at the Los Angeles Art Museum. She too is obsessed with trying to make as much money as she can off art or create some kind of fame or power from the art she curates. Collette was in a great horror film last year, Hereditary (2018), where she gave a fantastic performance. This is a fun role, but not anything near as meaty for her.

John Malkovich was just in another Netflix film last year called Bird Box that gave him more to do than he gets here. Malkovich plays Piers, an artist that doesn't care about the money or the fame, despite what his agent, Jon Dondon, played by Tom Sturridge, says or insists.

Daveed Diggs (Black-ish and The Get Down) plays Damrish, an artist who also is opposed to all the money and fame. It's a brief role, but he's a sexy example of the antithesis of those solely concerned with commerce and wealth in the art-world. Gilroy's point on this isn't as clear. His critique might simply be against the commerce and wealth in general, but I wasn't sure. It's more vague than the point being made in something like the Oscar-nominated The Square (2017).

Speaking of sexy though, Gilroy who is married to Russo in real life provides a kind of queer gaze to this film that is appreciated. For example, we get a lot of male nudity, more so than female nudity. Gyllenhaal, Diggs, Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods and The Big Short) who plays Bryson, another employee at Rhodora's gallery, and Sedale Threatt Jr. who plays Morf's boyfriend Ed all get nude or bare a lot of skin. Unfortunately, we don't see enough same-sex attraction, but what little queer gaze we get here is enough.

Rated R for violence, bloody images, language and sex with nudity.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 52 mins.

In select theaters, including The Landmark in Los Angeles and New York City.
Available on Netflix.