Velvet Buzzsaw
2019 · Directed by Dan Gilroy
Original language: English
- thriller
- mystery
- horror
The story
Big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce. 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.
What it’s like
Glossy, chilled-out Los Angeles art-world interiors: white galleries, glass-walled Malibu-style houses, pristine minimal rooms lit by cool, even gallery light that gradually turns sickly and stained as the story goes on. Dan Gilroy frames the wealthy and self-regarding with crisp, symmetrical compositions and precise, slightly mocking camera moves, so each sleek set-piece feels like a pointed joke at the expense of its inhabitants. The score leans on bright, brittle electronic pulses and sudden silences, and the sound design keeps the spaces hard and echoing. Vibe: sleek, sardonic unease, a gallery opening where the champagne has started to curdle. The tone runs dark comedy and satire, with a steady build of dread that breaks into sharp, brief bursts of gore and violence, mostly in the second half, though the horror is more theatrical than relentlessly bloody. Pacing is brisk and cutting, with characters who are vain, grasping and increasingly unmoored as the consequences arrive. Best for people who enjoy caustic social satire, art-world skewering and a stylish, nasty thriller, and less suited to anyone wanting something gentle.
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