Go 7 February 2019

Page 8 GO & EXPRESS
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February 7, 2019
‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ has
that slasher feel to it
MATTHEW FIELD
What do you get when you take a
biting satire of the art industry, mix
in some slasher film set pieces, a
sprinkling of Lovecraft, and deliver
it with all the subtlety of a
sledgehammer to the face?
You get Netflix's latest original
movie Velvet Buzzsaw, directed by
Dan Gilroy and starring Jake
Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni
Collet te and Zawe Ashton.
The story follows an eccentric
cast of characters, including
Gyllenhaal’s snobby art critic,
Russo’s disillusioned gallery owner,
Collet te’s elitist collector, and
Ashton’s ambitious curator.
When Ashton’s neighbour dies in
front of her, she discovers a
treasure trove of paintings hidden
in his apartment. She takes them
for herself and decides to use them
as leverage to kick-start her own
career. However, it soon becomes
clear the artist had a good reason
for wanting them destroyed.
Each character is almost
cartoonish in their eccentricity.
Gyllenhaal is probably the biggest
example – there's a whole scene
where he criticises the music and
even the coffin colour at a
colleague’s funeral. Given the
nature of the film, however, this
isn’t as big of a drawback as you'd
think. The whole point of the film is
to satirise the absurdity of the
modern art scene and is thus
equally absurd in its delivery.
Velvet Buzzsaw harkens back to
'80s and '90s slasher flicks which
tried to incorporate over-the-top
gruesome death scenes with a
veneer of social commentary (and
is about as successful at pulling it
of f ) .
If you keep that in mind while
watching, a lot of the acting makes
sense. For all its attempts at
high-brow criticism, B u z z s aw is a
slasher film at its heart and thus it
lives and dies on its death scenes.
Thankfully, these are some of the
best parts of the entire movie.
Each death is satisfyingly
gruesome and most are pretty darn
creative, presenting their victims
with an appropriately ironic end.
While it's easy to guess which
characters in any slasher will live
and die, how they go has always
been half the fun – and this film
delivers in spades.
While I enjoyed this movie, it
might not be for everyone. Slasher
fans may be put off by the
pretentious characters and the long
wait until the action starts and
those looking for a nuanced critique
of modern art will be put off by the
hammy acting and sudden tonal
shift once the blood starts flying.
Despite all that, Velvet Buzzsaw is
still lots of fun.
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