Netflix's "Velvet Buzzsaw" is a unique product (SPOILER ALERT), rather like Dennis Steckler's "Rat Fink A Boo Boo" and Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez's "From Dusk Till Dawn", beginning like one thing, but turning into something else all together.
Written/directed by Dan "Kong: Skull Island" Gilroy, the film centers on the art world, where the snob echelon soon revolves around the works of a defunct artist named Vetril Dease. We never get to see Dease (unless one counts Alan Mandell's spectral insinuations), only the colorful examples of his work: rich in tones and when it comes to their depicted personas, brimming of anguish.
Hipsters are drawn to the macabre images, which includes contemptuous critic and default-protagonist, Morph Vandervalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), along with various artists, assistants and promoters who sport such cute names as Rhodora Haze (Renee Russo); Piers (John Malkovich); Josephina (Zawe Ashton); Darmish (Daveed Diggs); Coco (Natalia Dyer); Bryson (Billy Magnussen); and Gretchen (Toni Collette). They're not the most identifiable lot, but due to their engaging quirks, one can't help but hang with 'em.
The first chunk of the film caters to their meaner-than-thou interactions, though a shift commences when Josephina catches wind of Dease's death in her apartment complex. She's informed that the recluse left instructions to destroy all of his belongings, which leads her to snoop and snatch his many canvases. From there, Dease's paintings are exposed and sought for profit among the aforementioned and beyond, but the unfolding exchanges come with a price.
Dease stirred something into his paintings: Think along the lines of Walter Paisley or Adam Sorg. Whatever the pigments harbor pulls people in, but is it hallucinogenic or supernatural? Perhaps both...
Those who grow obsessed with the paintings die horribly, but this isn't surprising since by reputation, Dease was a man capable of great harm. That he requested his odd creations be destroyed was, in fact, a gracious gesture and yet...
The frantic Vandervalt is left to unravel the scary shenanigans, which are plenty and fierce. In fact, Gilroy's tale plays much like an extended "Night Gallery", delving into full-blown, '70s psychedelia by the film's second half. To accentuate its surreal splotches, there are "Nightmare on Elm Street" nods, a giant, interactive sphere to make any "Phantasm" fan drool, and one helluva cool animatronic mannequin called Hobo Man (Mark "Stranger Things" Steger) that appears to hold a life of its own.
The film is also one of stark contrasts, comparable to Michael Winner's "The Sentinel": so sanitized and posh at first, but messy and chaotic by its climax. It's a story of control and the lack of it. It shows what happens when the elite think they're above the law and for all of their self-serving antics, cataclysmic karma awaits.
I figured this one would be good, if only based on its writer/director and cast, but boy, did it ever exceed my expectations. "Velvet Buzzsaw" (and the title will click before the credits roll) may not be original in all respects, but thanks to its deft and tricky execution, it sure comes across that way.
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