Velvet Buzzsaw Review

February 4, 2019 at 3:39am
By Jason Stettner

Velvet Buzzsaw is a Netflix Original film about a particular collection of paintings. These beautifully crafted pieces of art were destined to be burned, that is until a nosy neighbor took the pieces. It's a vicious world, the modern landscape of art and many individuals are working together or competing with one another. It's also a secretly violent environment, as these paintings were made with anger and have a certain darkness to them. Those that interact with the pieces, tend to have misfortune follow them.

This is showcased over a very, very slow build up. The pacing in this film is rather poor and it takes forever to get to the point. The most exciting parts were sprinkled throughout and it was tedious to reach them. This could have been condensed for more fear, and a deeper impact. There was creativity in here, from the designs to the strange locations everyone visited. They really went all out in capturing the art world, and it works for the most part. Sadly, it takes forever to get to exciting portions and even then there's really no purpose to the madness.

Aside from pacing issues and the overly long length, many of the narratives seem to trail off. There are many plot points that just get forgotten, many things are left without any sort of conclusion and it felt random by the end. I had the most lackluster of feelings towards this once it was over. Memorable in some parts, pointless in others and it just didn't deliver.

The acting was phenomenal however, everyone really embraced this whimsical hellscape. Morf (Jake Gyllenhaal) is really the heart of this experience, being just incredible as a charming critic. It's a strange role, and he just nails it. I wish there was something more to what he was doing, or any sort of reasoning and purpose. Whatever the case, this looked great and had some gorgeous art showcased throughout the movie. They had unique concepts, it just needed a better pay-off.

The Conclusion

Velvet Buzzsaw has some really creative concepts with a great cast, but it doesn't use either to their full potential. Many of the story lines are just left to the abyss, some of the plot doesn't really make sense. There were some creative deaths, or misery presented throughout yet you rarely get to see the effects. It's as though they hide some graphic content, while going all out at other times.

The loss of life seemed inconsistent, some things didn't really make sense. By the end of it all I felt underwhelmed, despite there being so much that should have went right. The acting was excellent, there's a great cast and they were so creative in the setup. The concept of art twisting the world was so cool and it was great to see this in action, it just didn't go all the way while being stretched out far too much.

Velvet Buzzsaw Review at Home with Streamed Viewing

Rating Overall: 5.0