Velvet Buzzsaw Review: 4 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Flat Visuals & Weird Editing

Velvet Buzzsaw Jake Gyllenhaal
Netflix

Gilroy's Nightcrawler did a fantastic job making night-time Los Angeles feel like a character thanks to evocative cinematography from Oscar-winning DP Robert Elswit, and though Elswit returns to shoot this film, the results are decidedly less inviting.

So many scenes in Velvet Buzzsaw are flatly lit and utterly uninteresting to look at, making the film's 4K HDR presentation on Netflix pretty close to pointless. What should've been a visual feast to compliment the movie's musings on art is instead bizarrely drab.

Editing choices are also problematic: Gilroy employs bizarre, jarring fade-outs that suggest an amateur feel, and a couple of ill-advised flashbacks are presented in choppy, sped-up form, resembling the unfussed style of a Saw movie more than anything.

If it's a regular complaint that too many Netflix Original comedies end up resembling bad sitcoms, Velvet Buzzsaw proves that even prestige projects aren't safe from looking a bit uninspired.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.