Connect with us

News

‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ Is Mesmerizing Art Horror About The Horrors Of The Art World

Published

on

“All art is dangerous.” is an off-hand line in Velvet Buzzsaw. It proves to be all too true.

Image via IMDB

The story follows foppish master art critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he becomes entangled in an art exhibit with side effects worse than Stendhal Syndrome. Josephine (Zawe Ashton) an ambitious agent at an art exhibitor run by former punk icon Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) finds a tenant in her apartment building dead one day. The man, Ventril Dease was a hermit who amassed a massive portfolio of beautifully painted portraits of his own design. After being pushed by Rhodora into claiming the isolated deceased’s collection of work, they plan on exhibiting it at the Los Angeles Museum of Art with much hype. Unwittingly however, they unleash a supernatural force that wreaks bloody mayhem on anyone who dared to profit off these ill-gotten masterpieces…

The movie by Nightcrawler‘s Dan Gilroy reunites some of his stars from the intense sociopathic thriller with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo the leads once again in an impressive ensemble cast that also includes Toni Collette as an art curator and John Malkovich as a formerly alcoholic artist trying to recapture his glory. This ensemble cast sets-up many potential victims and how interwoven the web of lies and deceit within the world of art can be. Though at times it can be easy to lose track of characters and arcs as the spotlight hops around. Gyllenhaal’s performance as Morf was powerful as a man obsessed with finding perfection. Remarking “The critic is God in the art world” and driven to the point of describing his lover’s skin tone like a palette and even criticizing a funeral casket. Russo’s Rhodora likewise comes off as morally grey

Image via IMDB

At its core, Velvet Buzzsaw is a horror movie, without a doubt. Combined with that however, it is a flesh biting satire of the art world and the corruptive nature of art becoming more about business rather than… art. And the disturbing works of Dease punish those that seek to make a fortune from his accursed portraits. In a sense, the story of Velvet Buzzsaw is a traditional one in the horror genre: cursed treasure. Be it pirate booty or an ancient artifact, we are compelled to seek and utilize these objects in the face of unbelievable danger and death.

Image via IMDB

Whether to increase our bank accounts or our egos, the risk seems to match the reward. Leading to Dease’s art to set-up some gruesome and memorable kills through. combination of the portraits and environments. My personal favorite involving an exhibit called ‘Sphere’ like an industrial sized version of Phantasm‘s sentinel sphere. Gilroy seems to have a few clever horror homages through the film, (Including one I assume to be to Tales From The Hood) though they could be up to interpretation. Art, after all, is subjective.

While being based on such an esoteric community may turn off some, these same sentiments of art, greed, and desperation can relate to so many different communities and forms of creative expression. If you can, immerse yourself into the world of Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix, February 1st or at one of its limited release screenings.

Image via IMDB

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

Published

on

The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading