Entertainment
Jake Gyllenhaal's R-Rated Netflix Thriller Is A Dangerous Display Of Rage Beyond The Grave
By Robert Scucci
| Published
As a lifelong musician, there’s a certain kind of peer that I absolutely despise: the self-important artist. You know the type, the people who walk around like their farts don’t smell because they think they’re God’s gift to mankind. Once the work day is done, they pour their heart and soul into their creations, and those creations become the essence of their being. And in their minds, that essence is the most important thing in the world.
While I’m probably being cynical when I say it’s all just performative posturing, I spent enough of my formative years around this type of person to understand exactly where 2019’s Velvet Buzzsaw is coming from.
In this movie, the most stuck-up, clout-chasing, back-handed, stab-you-in-the-back-if-they-can-get-the-upper-hand types get their comeuppance when they start dealing with the work of a newly deceased, completely unknown artist. He leaves behind a treasure trove of mixed-media masterpieces that were never meant to be seen. In fact, he explicitly instructed that his art be destroyed. Instead, it goes up for sale, and everybody who comes into contact with it dies a gruesome death.
Now, I’m not one to incite or encourage violence, but since we’re dealing with a supernatural thriller packed with some of the most unlikeable, pretentious, insufferable gasbags known to man, it’s beyond satisfying to watch them violate this dead man’s wishes and get what’s coming to them.
“All Art Is Dangerous”
Velvet Buzzsaw takes place in a Miami-based art gallery where a bunch of cosmo-drinking artists and critics gather just to hear themselves talk. Among them is Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), a critic known for his scathing reviews and melodramatic flair, who’s having second thoughts about his relationship with his boyfriend Ed (Sedale Threatt Jr.). He starts developing feelings for Josephina (Zawe Ashton), who works for ruthless gallery owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), who unironically says things like “all art is dangerous” and verbally abuses anyone who crosses her path.
Rhodora moves units with eight-figure price tags, so her ego makes sense in context, but you can tell right away she’s a rough hang.
When Josephina returns home to LA, she finds her upstairs neighbor, Vetril Dease (Alan Mandell), dead outside his apartment, with no signs of foul play. His apartment is filled floor to ceiling with morbid artwork that immediately entrances anyone who sees it. Constantly on the receiving end of Rhodora’s criticism, Josephina collects the pieces so Morf and Rhodora can appraise them and possibly put them on the market, giving her clout in an industry that’s ready to chew her up and spit her out.
They quickly realize Dease isn’t a known artist. The work is authentic and original, but there’s no frame of reference for anything he created.
It doesn’t take long for art patrons to start foaming at the mouth over these pieces, including curator Gretchen (Toni Collette), washed-up artist Piers (John Malkovich), and rising star Damrish (Daveed Diggs). The most enthralled is Bryson (Billy Magnussen), the gallery’s installer, who’s bitter that nobody values his artistic input despite his talent, since his job is literally hanging other people’s work instead of showcasing his own.
While transporting some of Dease’s pieces, Bryson gets attacked and killed by the paintings. He’s lit on fire and then pulled into a painting depicting rabid monkeys at an abandoned gas station that flickers to life just for him right as he passes by. Shortly after, people start dropping like flies. The only connection, though nobody realizes it at first, is Dease.
Since everyone is only looking out for themselves in this cutthroat industry, communication isn’t exactly their strong suit. But Morf, after digging into Dease’s past, uncovers enough disturbing information to confirm what’s happening. His art, once released into the world, is cursed.
The Downside To Graverobbing That Nobody Really Talks About
Every character in Velvet Buzzsaw wants to be great, so much so that they have zero issue robbing a dead man of his work, distributing it everywhere, realizing people are dying because of it, and still focusing on whether they can keep moving units.
When Morf tells Rhodora he plans to expose everything, she immediately starts blowing up phones, trying to sell off the pieces before the story breaks. Josephina, who kicked off the entire chain reaction, only cares about how Dease’s work benefits her. His body was probably still warm when she started making calls.
Most importantly, these tryhards are doing everything they can to maintain the mystique and value of Dease’s work, without caring about the fallout. Aside from Morf, who’s still annoying but at least somewhat likable, every character in Velvet Buzzsaw is completely irredeemable. The fun comes from watching them slowly realize they’ve curated something they can’t control. Something that’s coming for them.
When art becomes a commodity and the highest bidders are morally bankrupt, it’s only a matter of time before their behavior catches up with them. In Velvet Buzzsaw, that moment comes when they decide to rob an elderly man of his life’s work without even attempting to contact anyone who might be connected to him. It never even crosses their minds, but Dease gets the last laugh as everyone tied to his creations is taken out in increasingly brutal fashion.
Velvet Buzzsaw, streaming exclusively on Netflix, is billed as a satirical supernatural horror comedy, and it earns that description. Most of the appeal comes from its dry, morbid sense of humor. The best way to watch this movie is after spending time in an art gallery and overhearing the kinds of conversations people have. Once you’ve had your fill of pretentiousness and white wine spritzers, watching it all burn to the ground is half the fun.
