Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
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.
Velvet Buzzsaw earns genuine novelty points for its sharp, singular premise — a supernatural horror-satire skewering the pretensions and greed of the contemporary art world. The setting, tone, and central conceit are genuinely distinctive, blending art-world insider satire with genre horror in a way few films attempt. The acting is serviceable with a strong ensemble (Gyllenhaal clearly relishes the role), but performances are uneven and the characters are largely thin caricatures by design. Cinematography makes elegant use of gallery spaces and art installations, though it never transcends competent. The plot starts promisingly but loses coherence as it progresses — the satirical targets are broad and the kills mechanical. The ending is the weakest element, arriving without satisfying payoff or thematic resolution, leaving the film feeling like a stylish concept that never fully commits to either its horror or satirical ambitions.