VELVET BUZZSAW

US, 2019, 113 minutes, Colour.
Jake Gyllenhaal, René Russo, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, John Malkovich, Billy Magnusson.
Directed by Dan Gilroy.

For audiences wanting something exotic, Velvet Buzzsaw might be just the film.

The setting is the American art world, Jake Gyllenhaal portraying a critic with an abrasive touch, René Russo as a ruthless art gallery director (with Velvet Buzzsaw is her nickname), Toni Collette as a rival gallery consultant. In the supporting cast is a range of painters, agents, art exploiters played by such actors as Tom Sturridge and John Malkovich.

The film spends quite a deal of time portraying its art culture, the eccentric and self-centred range of characters, their dealings and double dealings.

However, there is a change of pace when, by accident, one of the ambitious agents discovers a vast range of paintings in the apartment of a deceased artist. She exploits the art, beating others to do deals with the various gallery owners.

Then, there is a rather strange supernatural twist. There is something mysterious about the artist, his life, time in jail, his secrecy – and some powers in the paintings that are beyond the human. As a consequence, the various deaths, punishment for the exploiters, presenting a kind of moral maze.

The film is been directed by Dan Gilroy, writer a number of Hollywood screenplays, who came to greater prominence with writing and directing The Nightcrawler, stirring Jake Gylenhaal and René Rosso (to whom he is married and who has collaborated in several of his films).

1. The title? The tone? The nickname for Rhodora?

2. The art world? The contrast with the real world? The world of artists, critics, financing deals? The world of egos and artistic temperament?

3. The locations, California and Los Angeles, offices of the dealers, art and exhibitions, the offices of agents? The homes of artists? The world critics? Media? The musical score?

4. Jake Gyllenhaas as Morf, his work as a critic, his personality, fey, intimations of gay, his relationship with Rhodora, with Josephina? With the artist? His aims, interactions, critiques and exhibitions?

5. Rhodora, strong personality, haughty, her range of clients, shrewdness, taking them on, losing them? Interactions with Morf? With Josephina?

6. Piers, his role as an artist, veteran, artistic block, going to the shows, conversations and links with critics and dealers? And seeing him at work at the end?

7. Those on the fringe of the art world, workers in offices, Coco and her ambitions, coming from Michigan, work, giving information, betrayals? Bryson, art, frustrations?

8. Gretchen, her work with galleries, her colleagues, waspish in manner, discussions and interactions, ingratiating herself? Leaving the gallery, planning a new career?

9. Josephina, fish, self-willed, ambitious, late, Rhodora lessening her work and image? The dead artist, looking at his work, transferring it, seeing the value, her scheming and contacts? The affair with Morf? Her discovery of the black artist, the relationship with him, his criticisms, the club and his peers, walking out?

10. The dead artist, his work, the range of visuals, paintings, sketches, subjects? Family? His will and the material to be destroyed?

11. Morf, researching his life, his personality, as a guard, prison, talking with his associates? Morf intending to write a book?

12. The response, the acquiring of the artworks, exhibitions, sales, hiding them from the public, gradual revelations, building up of clients?

13. The effects of the artworks, touches of violence, suspicions? Bryson and his taking work, driving away, the breakdown, in the desert? Gretchen, her being overcome? Josephina, confidence, attack? Morf, his being overwhelmed? Rhodora and her trying to deal with the crisis?

14. The credibility of this kind of supernatural effect? The impact of the deaths?

15. The mysterious artworks and their also being a buzzsaw?