December 30 2025, 11:03
Velvet Buzzsaw
Director: Dan Gilroy
Release year: 2019
Ambitious art gallery receptionist Josephina has her hoped-for promotion taken away by hard-nosed gallery owner Rhodora Haze. One evening, she discovers the dead body of an artist living in the apartment above her, along with rooms full of brilliant paintings, which she learns the man wanted destroyed. She asks her ex-boyfriend, influential art critic Morf Vandewalt, to confirm her assessment of its quality, and this sets off a battle in the Los Angeles art world over who will profit from the dead artist’s legacy. But the paintings are cursed, and those who profit from them begin to die in gruesome art-related ways.
This is a story of greedy art world snobs getting their comeuppance. Abused as a child, disturbed artist Vetril Dease used his own blood in his paintings, and this seems to be part of the supernatural curse he’s put on them. His art poured out of him onto canvases, cardboard, scraps of paper, anything to hand, and analysis shows there is no discernible pattern to his technique, and no sketches to show ideas being developed. He is a true outsider artist making art to process trauma.
Josephina, played by a wonderful Zawe Ashton, is terrified of being stuck as a receptionist and desperate to rise through the ranks of the art world. Her ambition sets the story in motion, and at first it’s understandable why she would try and save the art works from destruction. The commercial galleries are soon battling to make as much money as possible from Dease’s work, which other artists recognise as both genius and ‘alive’ in some way.
Artists in the film are represented by the cynical, newly sober (and artist-blocked) Piers, played by John Malkovich, and Damrish, part of a collective representing a younger generation. Both men recognise the power of the work and are stimulated to step away from the allure of money and fame to concentrate on their art. They are spared from the curse. Those who make a living from amplifying the work for profit, including selfish art critic Morf, are killed one-by-one by art pieces.
Dease, in death, has the power to punish the greedy and selfish through all art, not just his own. People die via other artist’s work, graffiti, and even tattoos. Everyone making this film seems to be having fun. It’s so good.
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