Velvet Buzzsaw
Short description
Velvet Buzzsaw is set in the Los Angeles art world, where an ambitious agent named Josephina discovers hundreds of paintings left behind by an elderly neighbor after his death. He had asked that the works be destroyed, but she ignores that instruction and starts circulating them. The paintings quickly draw the attention of powerful figures around her, including her boss Rhodora Haze, the critic Morf Vandewalt, and rival collectors and curators. As the dead artist gains posthumous recognition, something unseen and sinister stirs, threatening those who have profited from his work.
Dan Gilroy directed the film and wrote the screenplay, following Nightcrawler (2014) and Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017) in his directing career. Jennifer Fox produced. Rene Russo plays Rhodora, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Morf, and Zawe Ashton plays Josephina, with Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette and Natalia Dyer among the cast.
Released in 2019, the film runs 112 minutes and cost about 21 million dollars. Ratings place it in middling territory: it holds 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 69,000 votes, and 5.4 out of 10 on TMDB from about 2,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 199 reviews sits slightly above the audience scores, suggesting reviewers were a little warmer toward it than viewers were.
What's left behind the scenes
- Even before filming began, director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy stated that it would be something similar to Robert Altman’s “The Player,” and he strove to emulate Altman in his work.
- During the scriptwriting and filming process, Dan Gilroy constantly consulted with many representatives of the contemporary art world.
- Vetril Dease (anagram of the words “Devil’s eater,” which can be translated as “devourer of the devil” or “devilish devourer”) is the name of a man who lived in the early 19th century. Director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy learned about him while reviewing old documents for the filming of one of his previous films.
- A loose adaptation of the story of Henry Darger, a recluse who gained fame only posthumously, leaving behind a vast number of drawings.
- Dan Gilroy wrote the characters of Morph and Rhodora specifically for Rene Russo and Jake Gyllenhaal.
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