Velvet Buzzsaw

Name: Velvet Buzzsaw
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Released: February 1, 2019
Duration: 113 min
Rating: 61
Cast: Alan Mandell, Billy Magnussen, Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich

2019

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 172 Ratings

See All

5.6

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5.6	Your Score
5.6	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 172 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Velvet Buzzsaw

Now Playing: Velvet Buzzsaw

Movie Details & Credits

Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): February 1, 2019 | R

Starring: Alan Mandell, Billy Magnussen, Daveed Diggs, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, Natalia Dyer, Peter Gadiot, Pisay Pao, Rene Russo, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton

Summary: After a series of paintings by an unknown artist are discovered, a supernatural force enacts revenge on those who have allowed their greed to get in the way of art.

Director: Dan Gilroy

Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 113 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Carlos Aguilar

Jan 28, 2019

Inventively, Gilroy utilizes exaggerated horror tropes to take to task our cynical thoughts about artistic creation. His sharp Velvet Buzzsaw is an exquisitely diabolical exposé on the merciless materialistic ambitions that run rampant in cultural fields. Read full review

The Film Stage Dan Mecca

Jan 28, 2019

Velvet Buzzsaw may not be visionary, but it’s a ton of fun. Read full review

Leah Greenblatt

Jan 28, 2019

For a lot of its runtime, Velvet is fun and silly and enjoyably outrageous. It’s hard, though, to walk away with a real sense of anything more than blood on the canvas and a blank where your feelings — beyond mild bemusement, and a sudden appetite for prime Los Angeles real estate — should be. Read full review

The Guardian Benjamin Lee

Jan 28, 2019

Gilroy avoids the ghoulish extremes of Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals and offers up a believably pretentious battleground. He’s as invested in crafting a fully fleshed art world as he is in creating a full-on horror film and while the two often blend well, at other times, his concoction is far less effective. Read full review

Inkoo Kang

Feb 5, 2019

The sum amounts to far less than its parts, but oh, what parts! Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Jan 31, 2019

With its silvery sheen and sexy lure of celebrity actors being naughty, the film recalls the decadent, self-consciously chic art it parodies. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Feb 4, 2019

The movie wields its mockery with the subtlety of a power tool. Read full review

SEE ALL 29 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

nevans

Aug 8, 2019

Very enjoyable with inventive death scenes. A whole new perspective of the art scene with a deep, underlying message about greed. A great movie to watch if you’re looking both for scares and a bold statement that will keep you thinking about it long after the credits.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

crotch

Apr 3, 2019

I loved the actors’ performances. I loved the satirical, over-the-top nature that you don’t take seriously. And most importantly, I loved how I had no idea where this movies is going and how it was going to end.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Anxiosul

Feb 2, 2019

Velvet Buzzsaw it's an ok movie. Not a very good one, but an enjoyable one it is. Jake Gyllenhaal is funny. A great actor who can do whatever he wants. And he is good at it.One of my favourite actors.It's not a new story, but it's a strange approach..A fine movie, with good actors, butVelvet Buzzsaw it's an ok movie. Not a very good one, but an enjoyable one it is. Jake Gyllenhaal is funny. A great actor who can do whatever he wants. And he is good at it.One of my favourite actors.It's not a new story, but it's a strange approach..A fine movie, with good actors, but nothing special..… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

Brettshupe

Mar 8, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Velvet Buzzsaw is a movie that popped out of nowhere and had many people excited when first announced. What many thought would be an intense gripping thriller is more of a work of satire than a horror movie of any sorts. The movie has thriller/horror concepts and scenes but it never truly feels like that's what the film is supposed to be.
The film follows Morph, an extremely respectable and established art critic played by Jake Gyllenhaal—which is, in my opinion, by far the best character. I very much like Gyllenhaal in this role; he exudes a level of smugness as the harsh egotistical art critic. Most of the actors in this movie give good performances for what they are given to work with, but the film seems a bit inconsistent and messy at parts, something that annoyed me as the viewer is the amount of fade to blacks they had in this film, it seemed very redundant. Director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) is at the helm of this movie and many of his past techniques are shown in this movie. His follow-shots are used immensely in this film especially near the beginning of the film, which is positive for the most part besides becoming repetitive, it shows an amount of skillful filmmaking. The satire/portrayal of the fine art industry is exceptionally entertaining and is one of the parts of the film that shines. As a Student currently enrolled in an art program, a lot of the exchanges about the fine arts are scarily familiar to what it is. It is an exaggeration of certain character types in the art community, but it is enjoyable none the less. The story does have slower parts for sure in it, so some of the middle areas of the movie are extremely drawn out and frankly boring. The film seems to understand its ridiculousness and makes sure the names of the characters fit there exact demeanor (Jon Don-don, Gretchen). The concept though more satirical exposé of the ridiculous world of art then a horror film does truly hit some amazing concepts in its few horror moments and concepts. The kills/scares of Velvet Buzzsaw are, mostly, extremely creative and thought-provoking; it truly is one of the freshest concepts in the latest years of Hollywood. Sadly, the film seems surprisingly low budget for a movie with a budget of 21 million dollars. It seemed more like a student film in certain areas The film does a great bit of foreshadowing for future kills/scares, such as very briskly revealing Rene Russo's Rhodora was in a punk-rock group named Velvet Buzzsaw, then later shows that she has a tattoo on her neck of the band's logo which later is her demise. It shows the character of Gretchen becoming infatuated with this art piece named simply "sphere," later her fate coming to becoming stuck in the piece itself. This is effective storytelling, but there are parts that seem extremely rushed and just plain weird. The character of Coco played by stranger things actress Natalia Dyer is always in the wrong place at the wrong time! I don't know who cursed this girl with 18 years worth of bad luck, but oh my word. She keeps finding the dead people. She across the whole film discovers the bodies of Jon Don-don, Gretchen, and morph. This girl can't catch a break! This seemed extremely repetitive in the film because she would find them then scream every time the exact same way. A plus side of the kills is you basically hate everyone and I believe that's completely intentional, the film seems to want to portray everyone as unlikable. This works awesome for the kills but is a double-edged sword. If we don't care about the characters, we certainly just want to see them die and not talk for 75 percent of the movie. The movie takes its time with its kills and basically waits till the last 30 minutes to kill everyone off beside a few key characters such as the unlucky girl Coco. This is probably the best part of the movie. As much as I do enjoy the satirical aspect of it, I keep waiting for the horror aspects to come in, making the satire and exposition kind of a waiting line to the good stuff. Something I actually adore in this film is its color correction. It's used to give the film a more vibrant pop art feel, which is subtle, but I very much appreciate this attention to detail. It adds so much atmosphere and personality to the beginning scenes exploring the art community and industry. That said the visual effects seem a bit lower quality than I believe originally intended. The effect that for some strange reason still bothers me is the effect on the tattoo that makes final Rhodora's imminent demise. The last five minutes do have an interesting scene where a man sells the paintings that everyone has been fussing about for five dollars, where they were selling them for thousands of dollars. It's an extremely thought-provoking scene that really caught my eye for the analogy. But overall, The end of the film seems extremely out of place. It fell completely flat for me, which usually means I'm indifferent about how I feel.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ahmedaiman1999

Feb 1, 2019

Velvet Buzzsaw is thought-provoking, but not in a good way. My mind couldn't stop thinking throughout its 113 minute runtime; only to make sure if I'm really getting all what is going on, or the plot is so profound and smart that I'm only seeing the surface of it. The dialogue sounded veryVelvet Buzzsaw is thought-provoking, but not in a good way. My mind couldn't stop thinking throughout its 113 minute runtime; only to make sure if I'm really getting all what is going on, or the plot is so profound and smart that I'm only seeing the surface of it. The dialogue sounded very sophisticated, and everything was very stylish. Alas, the movie is utterly pretentious, and isn't half intelligent as it tries to be. The movie just liked to overstylize while it tried to distract you from its overly-expository dialogue, and its incoherent plot. But this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Only five minutes through the movie, I could tell that Velvet Buzzsaw is nothing but a typical Netflix movie; not like Roma, but much more like Mute. The production design, for instance, is surprisingly cheap and poor (considering the movie is about Art) that made the movie looks more like an episode of a TV-Series than an actual movie. There are some stunning colorful shots, though. Thanks in large part to the cinematographer Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood).

In the first 10 minutes we are introduced to many characters on after another who I wish if I cared about any of them. Aside from Josephina, played by Zawe Ashton, I was hardly invested in any of the characters. The stellar cast is not to blame of course; Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, and Toni Collette, they really did their best. What's worse than the overabundance of characters, whom I didn't care about, is that almost half of them are pretty much needless and don't have much to add to the story.

Dan Gilroy's use of foreshadowing is as unsubtle as it gets. I mean he abruptly quite literally focuses on particular things that would have a major role in the plot later on. Some of the images Gilroy throws right in your face are just for a satirical purpose. By the way, Velvet Buzzsaw falls completely flat as a satirical movie, If you haven't already expected that. Its satire is blatantly toothless and blunt.

The way Gilroy moves between the characters is quite impressive. It's slick, and also make you feel as if all the characters are suspicious, and always keep an eye on each other.

As a horror film, Velvet Buzzsaw doesn't have many horror elements, except some "scary" scenes and jumpscares scattered throughout the second half that are as laughably cheap as those you see in trashy dumb slasher horror flicks. As a result, the movie has a painfully inconsistent tone.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't interested at some point in the story, and wanted to know what would happen. Nevertheless, that was only for about 10 minutes in the second act, and then the movie lost me again pretty quick.

I can't express how frustrated and underwhelmed I am, especially when the movie marks the second collaboration between one of my all-time favorite actors Jake Gyllenhaal and the talented filmmaker Dan Gilroy, after the first movie they made together, Nightcrawler, which is one of my all-time favorites, and one of the few movies I gave them the perfect score. It's not the first time though for Gilroy to disappoint me, for he did back in 2017 with his mediocre film, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Velvet Buzzsaw is the first 2019 movie I watch, and it's likely to be on my top 10 disappointing movies of 2019 at the end of the year! Low your expectations, because Velvet Buzzsaw is yet another Netflix movie.

(4/10)… Expand

5 of 7 users found this helpful52

garmonbozia

Feb 2, 2019

A superficial satire on the art world with lots of cartoonish characters. It's really basic, shallow and a bit boring in its attempt to tell something about art market (???) It fails on so many levels. It isn't entertaining, it isn't visually stimulating enough (the only beautiful takes thatA superficial satire on the art world with lots of cartoonish characters. It's really basic, shallow and a bit boring in its attempt to tell something about art market (???) It fails on so many levels. It isn't entertaining, it isn't visually stimulating enough (the only beautiful takes that don't look cheesy are those few Los Angeles landscapes) and it lacks in atmosphere. The killings looked kitschy to almost laughable level - especially those dripping paintings that start to colour one of the victims. The movie looks like some modern version of X-files episode (only without FBI agents). It looks very TV. A TV movie. It has no power to stuck in your mind as something interesting and worth watching again.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

hnestlyonthesly

Oct 7, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Velvet Buzzsaw was Netflix’s third time pranking me into seeing an advertisement for their streaming service disguised as a movie suboptimal even as background noise for cleaning your kitchen or doing crossword puzzles (the first times being that **** of a sci-fi movie teased at the Superbowl last year, The Cloverfield Paradox, and more recently the Coen Brother’s cash crab of a made-for-tv Ballad of Buster Scruggs). I say this with full knowledge that I’ve only actually made it through the first hour ten, hour twenty of this film, because at that point Friend and I got a call that the baby was fussy and his colleague needed a relief pitcher, but even after four shots of whiskey, nothing about this yawn of a film did it for me.

Dan Gilroy, director of the lovely Nightcrawler (2014) also starring Jake Gyllenhaal, was able to pull one over on Netflix and possibly this Slate writer when she writes that the film “eventually develops a righteous, rousing kick” (maybe that happens in the last twenty minutes? we’ll never know). It’s genuinely kind of shocking that directors of this caliber working with the exact same actors and even larger budgets than they might for a movie that’s destined for the silver screen can turn out such garbage.

Please Birdbox this movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 48 REVIEWS