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Roman J. Israel Esq. was a surprising regression for writer/director Dan Gilroy. Despite the best efforts of star Denzel Washington in the lead role, an overly ambitious and somewhat absurd script prevented the legal drama from hitting its intended emotional high notes. His latest project Velvet Buzzsaw, which marks a return to the cynical, morbid world of satirical thrillers that birthed his incendiary breakout feature Nightcrawler, presented him with a golden opportunity to get back on track. Instead, Gilroy managed to concoct an even more aggravating and baffling misfire that only increases the likelihood that Nightcrawler was a one-off work of genius.
The setup for Velvet Buzzsaw is ideal for a huge dose of the venomous satire that made Nightcrawler so eerily effective. A mysterious death at a Los Angeles apartment complex leads to a struggling art gallery assistant (Zawe Ashton) discovering an extensive collection of paintings inside of the dead man's apartment. After setting up a public showing with the help of her boss (Rene Russo) and prestigious art critic boyfriend (Jake Gyllenhaal), the paintings become some of the most coveted pieces of art in the world. Shortly after the massive checks start clearing and a book is commissioned to discover the origins of this suddenly prolific artist, the reclusive dead man's sinister history is revealed and the large network of people profiting from his artwork slowly start getting killed off.
Despite having all of the puzzle pieces right in front of him, Gilroy never even comes close to making them fit together. With the blasé way he jumps from character to character without giving them distinctive motivations/traits and complete lack of commentary besides "people who profit off of art are self-important, money-chasing assholes that don't care about the feelings of the creator", it doesn't seem like he really has a lot of contempt or in-depth knowledge about the art world. You could argue that this was his way of displaying that the smugness and greed that makes these people hard to distinguish from one another, but I think the hollowness and bizarre lack of bite present in the script is more of a result of being indifferent towards the subject matter he's attempting to skewer than a well thought-out creative decision. When satire is this meek, it feels like a betrayal of the genre's principles that just can't be forgiven.
This staggering lack of conviction carries over to the blending of genres. With some thought and effort behind it, the juxtaposition between the highbrow world of gallery art and blood-soaked trashiness of an R-rated supernatural horror/slasher flick could've been a very effective one. Instead, passenger... I mean director Dan creates a clumsy little Frankenstein monster of a movie that hurls overwhelmingly cheesy, cheap CGI-fueled death scenes into an otherwise stern, humorless drama. As poorly-executed as this project is on the whole, Gilroy's inability to cohesively mesh these worlds together or at least find the dark humor on either side of this genre coin is without question the most egregious sin Velvet Buzzsaw commits.
If Gilroy can take solace in anything associated with Velvet Buzzsaw, it's that his cast prevented this half-assed dud from sinking deeper into the shit pile. While nobody even comes close to meeting the peak of their abilities, this ensemble (particularly Gyllenhaal, Russo and John Malkovich) brings enough competence to the table to at least provide a glimmer of hope that the movie will find its footing (or at least a clearly-defined purpose) by the time it wraps up. It ultimately doesn't mean much, but it was nice to see someone actually try to make something out of this aimless material and that little smidge of effort should prevent Velvet Buzzsaw from landing a prime spot on my worst of 2019 list.
The setup for Velvet Buzzsaw is ideal for a huge dose of the venomous satire that made Nightcrawler so eerily effective. A mysterious death at a Los Angeles apartment complex leads to a struggling art gallery assistant (Zawe Ashton) discovering an extensive collection of paintings inside of the dead man's apartment. After setting up a public showing with the help of her boss (Rene Russo) and prestigious art critic boyfriend (Jake Gyllenhaal), the paintings become some of the most coveted pieces of art in the world. Shortly after the massive checks start clearing and a book is commissioned to discover the origins of this suddenly prolific artist, the reclusive dead man's sinister history is revealed and the large network of people profiting from his artwork slowly start getting killed off.
Despite having all of the puzzle pieces right in front of him, Gilroy never even comes close to making them fit together. With the blasé way he jumps from character to character without giving them distinctive motivations/traits and complete lack of commentary besides "people who profit off of art are self-important, money-chasing assholes that don't care about the feelings of the creator", it doesn't seem like he really has a lot of contempt or in-depth knowledge about the art world. You could argue that this was his way of displaying that the smugness and greed that makes these people hard to distinguish from one another, but I think the hollowness and bizarre lack of bite present in the script is more of a result of being indifferent towards the subject matter he's attempting to skewer than a well thought-out creative decision. When satire is this meek, it feels like a betrayal of the genre's principles that just can't be forgiven.
This staggering lack of conviction carries over to the blending of genres. With some thought and effort behind it, the juxtaposition between the highbrow world of gallery art and blood-soaked trashiness of an R-rated supernatural horror/slasher flick could've been a very effective one. Instead, passenger... I mean director Dan creates a clumsy little Frankenstein monster of a movie that hurls overwhelmingly cheesy, cheap CGI-fueled death scenes into an otherwise stern, humorless drama. As poorly-executed as this project is on the whole, Gilroy's inability to cohesively mesh these worlds together or at least find the dark humor on either side of this genre coin is without question the most egregious sin Velvet Buzzsaw commits.
If Gilroy can take solace in anything associated with Velvet Buzzsaw, it's that his cast prevented this half-assed dud from sinking deeper into the shit pile. While nobody even comes close to meeting the peak of their abilities, this ensemble (particularly Gyllenhaal, Russo and John Malkovich) brings enough competence to the table to at least provide a glimmer of hope that the movie will find its footing (or at least a clearly-defined purpose) by the time it wraps up. It ultimately doesn't mean much, but it was nice to see someone actually try to make something out of this aimless material and that little smidge of effort should prevent Velvet Buzzsaw from landing a prime spot on my worst of 2019 list.
Grade: D+
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