NFLX2019 February 1st: Velvet Buzzsaw


Velvet Buzzsaw. Dan Gilroy. 2019. ☆☆★★★★

Once again, this movie seems so calculated. It’s like they put random attractive movie traits (Gyllenaal as totally gay; the art scene; horror) through a blender and came up with this without anybody wanting to make this specific movie.

That doesn’t mean that this is horrible: Any scene is like randomly switching to a new TV station and there’s something odd going on there. But nothing adds up to anything, of course, because nothing is connected.

It’s such an odd movie. The scary scenes are totally un-scary (and signalled so far in advance), and the satirical art scene scenes are totally unfunny.

This is so close to being a John Carpenter early-80s horror movie. Only not scary. I think I’m starting to see a pattern here with the Netflix movies, with their Extruded Movie Product feel. But it’s still early days; perhaps it’s just a sampling artefact.

But… it looks good, I guess? And the performances are fine? And there are scenes here that seem to work?

It’s just one of those movies where you’re left wondering just how it ended up the mess it did.

This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.

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