Netflix’s biggest project of the year so far arrives this week, with new thriller Velvet Buzzsaw set to drop on the streaming platform.
The movie, which mixes satire with supernatural horror, stars Jake Gyllenhaal as critic Mort Vanderwalt, who deals first hand with the insidious underbelly of the Los Angeles art world.
The film sees Gyllenhaal team up once again with director Dan Gilroy, who helmed 2014’s noir thriller Nightcrawler to critical acclaim.
Velvet Buzzsaw premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019, while fans will have the opportunity to watch it on Netflix from Friday, February 1.
It's the streaming platform's biggest project since 2018's Bird Box, with a budget believed to be around $21m. Here’s everything we know so far.
Trailer
The trailer follows Glynnenhall’s Vanderwalt, the highly influential art critic, with the power to make and break artists’s reputations in LA.
Things take a turn when a gallery he works closely with decides to base an exhibition around new, mysterious works, which are discovered in a dead, unnamed man’s apartment.
It quickly becomes clear that the macabre paintings have supernatural qualities, which lead to violent consequences for the greedy, vacuous players in the art scene.
"There is some sort of power, some spirit connected with his art," Glynnenhall’s Vanderwalt states, as the effects of the artwork's curse begin to reveal themselves in increasingly disturbing ways. We see a mysterious car crash involving supernatural flames, as well as a painting of monkeys coming to life in violent fashion. The curator, played by Toni Collette, also becomes the victim of a gruesome murder in the gallery itself, which is mistaken for an exhibit and immediately begins trending on Instagram.
Cast
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Rene Russo, who also starred in Nightcrawler, joins Glynnenhall in the cast as gallery owner Rhodora Haze, working closely with Toni Collette’s avaricious museum curator Gretchen.
John Malkovich plays Piers, an artist who's been out of favour ever since going sober 15 years previously. The part marks Malkovich's second appearance in a Netflix production, after starring in Bird Box. Daveed Diggs, meanwhile, plays Damrish, an up and coming artist with a growing reputation.
Elsewhere, Zawe Ashton, known for her part in sitcom Fresh Meat and work on the West End, is gallery prodigee Josephina – the one who first discovers the supernatural paintings – while Stranger Things's Natalie Dyer plays receptionist Coco.
Tom Sturridge appears as rival gallery owner Jon Dondon and Billy Magnusson plays gallery assistant Bryson.
What have the critics said?
The film has received mixed reviews so far, despite holding a very respectable rating of 87 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
In a three-star write-up, The Guardian called it “flawed but fun”, saying “there’s a strange curiosity that propels Velvet Buzzsaw and Gilroy’s unusual, bitter, silly, and often very funny genre cocktail does make for a fun diversion”.
Variety was also mostly complimentary, writing: "It's hardly great art, but Dan Gilroy's Netflix-bound horror satire packs an undeniably trashy appeal as it skewers the snobbish world of galleries."
IndieWire, on the other hand, called the film “a dull-witted joke about the violent relationship between art and commerce”, drawing parallels between the world the film creates and Netflix itself. “Not only is Velvet Buzzsaw the kind of bats*** insane, fiercely uncommercial gif-factory of a movie that only Netflix could make," the review adds, "It’s also blood-soaked propaganda for a streaming platform where every piece of art has an equal price.”
Release date
Viewers can make their own verdicts when the film arrives on Netflix on Friday, February 1.
