Velvet Buzzsaw Review: 4 Ups & 5 Downs
Dan Gilroy's arty horror underwhelms.
The third film from writer-director Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler, Roman J. Israel Esq.) is streaming now on Netflix fresh off its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Though early reviews for Velvet Buzzsaw have skewed broadly positive for the majority, there's an undeniable air of disappointment from most critics that the film merely settles for being watchable rather than genuinely great.
With an all-star cast and talented filmmaker in Gilroy, this should've been a ferociously intense and stingingly funny satire of the art world, but the results are sadly decidedly more uneven.
There are worse things you could be watching this weekend - and how neat is it to see a new Jake Gyllenhaal film in the comfort of your own home? - but if you're hoping for an utter triumph of a Netflix Original, Velvet Buzzsaw is an early 2019 disappointment for the streaming giant.
It's probably worth watching once, but make sure your expectations are suitably lowered first...