Velvet Buzzsaw

Dir: Dan Gilroy

2019

****

While 2016’s Nocturnal Animals was a horror of sorts set in the art world, I’m not sure a pure fantasy horror has actually ever had an art theme to it. Velvet Buzzsaw is a strange mix of Robert Altman and Final Destination that explores the soul of creativity. Dan Gilroy conceived the project after Superman Lives, a film which he had a hand in developing, was abruptly cancelled by Warner Bros. just weeks before filming was set to start. It’s a moment that changed the direction of Gilroy’s career and how he approached film making. "I remember being just devastated," Gilroy said. "I'd worked for a year and a half. This was going to be a massive film for me. I was so excited. So I drove down to Santa Monica, and I sat on the beach, and I was just trying to process this year and a half, and I thought, 'Wow, I could have written all of those words on the beach in the sand, and the waves could have just washed them away.' That's pretty much the relevance of what I just went through." However, Gilroy began to realize that the time wasn't wasted as he grew as a writer from it and led him to start working on projects that mattered to him, not just what he was hired for. It's that decision that ultimately led him to Velvet Buzzsaw and the final scene of the film specifically. When asked what he wanted audiences to take away from the film, Gilroy said "I hope people look at art in a slightly different way. Any time you listen to a piece of music or look at a sculpture or a painting or a film, you realize the artists behind that have invested what I believe to be their creative soul into the work. To me, that's a bit of a sacred thing and I think we've lost that a little bit. I would love it if we could return to that." Gilroy was struck by the idea for Velvet Buzzsaw after having visited the Dia contemporary-art gallery in Beacon, New York and hours after came up with a rough plot. " I was wandering around this huge, empty warehouse with all this rather disturbing contemporary art. And I wound up in the basement in a video installation with, like, dentist chairs and rats running around. And I just thought, 'Man, this would be a great place for a horror movie.' The idea that artists invest their souls in their work and it's more than a commodity - that has always interested me. I suddenly saw a way of incorporating it all, to explore how, when art and commerce are dangerously out of balance, bad things can happen. It clicked very quickly." It is quite effective too and he clearly did his research. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a cliched art critic Morf Vandewalt and we follow him to an art exhibition alongside his friend and agent Josephina (Zawe Ashton) who works for tough art gallery owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) - formerly a member of the rock band Velvet Buzzsaw. Morf is unfulfilled in his own love life with his boyfriend Ed, and so starts a sexual relationship with Josephina. Returning back to Los Angeles, Josephina finds a dead man called Vetril Dease in her apartment block and, discovering that he was an artist, enters his home to discover a myriad of paintings. Josephina steals the paintings to show to Morf and Rhodora who become fascinated with Dease and see an opportunity to sell the pieces to the public. Josephina begins exhibiting the artwork at the request of Rhodora. Morf's art curator friend Gretchen (Toni Collette) and a former abstract artist for the Haze Gallery, Piers (John Malkovich), become equally enamored with Dease's work. The pieces are shown in a successful public display in which industry professionals intend to purchase them. Under orders from Rhodora to ensure the rarity of the paintings, gallery worker Bryson (Billy Magnussen) transports half of the paintings to storage. While transporting them, out of curiosity, he opens a crate and decides to keep one of the artworks for himself. En route, he accidentally crashes his car when lit cigarette ash disposed on a painting causes severe burns. Retreating to a gas station, Bryson is attacked by a painting of monkeys fixing a car and goes missing, as well as the artworks. Morf begins researching Dease, discovering that he suffered from a troubled and abusive childhood that resulted in the murder of his father and his growing mental illness that he portrayed in the paintings. Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge), an opposing art gallery owner, attempts to tell Dease's story to the press but is soon murdered when he becomes trapped in an artwork and hanged by his scarf. Rhodora's former assistant Coco (Natalia Dyer), who was also searching for a personal file on Dease kept by her boss, discovers Jon's body the next morning. After Jon's funeral, Morf notices a hand in a Dease painting suddenly move, causing him to be overwhelmed. One by one each character begins to believe that the works are cursed and that Dease himself succumbed to his own demise when he tried to burn his own paintings. Analysis of the paintings reveals that many of them contain traces of skin and human tissue within them and the atmosphere of the film gets very eerie indeed. There is quite a lot of symbolism within the film, some of which could be overlooked by people unfamiliar with certain art movements but it is clear that Gilroy is making a statement about people profiting from other people’s work. Indeed, the only people to survive are the artists inspired by the pieces, rather than obsessed by their value. It is a critique on critique in many respects, that is, a sort of revenge by an artist. It’s not sour grapes either but Gilroy is exercising a few demons, which is always an interesting thing for the audience to see. I like how Gilroy has worn his heart on his sleeve and I like how he’s gone about it. There are many tributes within the film too which are clear and a nice touch, making the film even more personal. Some of the deaths are better than others, with some of them poor and other amazing, but all are symbolic in some way. The characters are all a bit cliché and all of them are floored. Our critic is hypercritical, the agent is talentless, the gallery owner is a sell-out and everyone wants credit of other people’s success. It is a culling of creative vampires and the age old tale of obsession leading to demise. It’s different and it’s odd. I really liked it and I’d like to see more horror films set in the art world now.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Dir: Dan Gilroy

2017

****

I thought Roman J. Israel, Esq. explored the topic of modern-day revolutionism brilliantly. Roman, played by Denzel Washington in what has to be his best performance in years, is an idealistic defense lawyer who has been working for $500 a week at a small law firm in Los Angeles for several decades. He’s an old-school civil rights student who knows law like the back of his hand. In his two-partner office, Israel is responsible for preparing briefs, often focusing on the civil rights of their defendants, while William Jackson, the firm's owner and a well-respected professor, focuses on the courtroom appearances that Israel struggles with, due to social anxiety. Roman could be seen as somewhat autistic, maybe even aspergers, although this is never confirmed or even addressed. Roman’s life becomes complicated after Jackson suffers a fatal heart attack. He learns that the firm is broke and will have to close, all to be handled by Jackson’s former student, George Pierce (Colin Farrell). Pierce, who greatly admired Jackson and is impressed by Roman’s legal mind (“worth $500 an hour”), offers a job at his own large firm. Israel rejects this offer for moral reasons, believing that Pierce is simply just another greedy lawyer. Roman then meets Maya (Carmen Ejogo) during a job interview at a local activist network. The interview does not go well due to Roman’s lack of tact and blunt nature but Maya asks him to speak at an upcoming meeting organizing a protest. Unfortunately this also goes badly. Lost, Roman reluctantly takes a job with Pierce. He is a poor fit, clashing with senior partner Jesse Salinas after he mockingly laughs at a joke Salinas makes about battered women, eventually called him a tourist in the world of law. Roman has spent years developing a brief that he believes will bring social reform to the unfair use of plea-bargaining to induce guilty pleas in the justice system. Though short on interpersonal skills, he is gifted with a phenomenal memory as well as strong personal convictions on the meaning of justice, which he has pursued at the expense of family. Feeling this is his last hope, and that Pierce might have an ounce of good in him being a student of Jackson's, he approaches Pierce with his idea. Pierce rejects him and assigns him standard clients. Roman, deflated, begins to wonder what his life’s work has all been for. Roman is assigned his first case - Derrell Ellerbee, a young man arrested for murder. Ellerbee tells him that he is willing to tell police the whereabouts of the actual shooter, longtime criminal Carter Johnson, and will testify against him. Roman goes behind Salinas' back to negotiate a plea deal with the district attorney when no one is available to speak to him, but the prosecutor rejects his offer and hangs up on Israel after he insults her unsympathetic counter-offer to his bargain. No deal is struck and Ellerbee is murdered as a snitch. Roman's mishandling of Ellerbee's case leads to trouble for the firm and Pierce berates him for his insubordination. To sack him would suggest guilt, so he is kept on but is told he will eventually be let go. That evening Roman is mugged and beaten by a homeless man he attempted to help. He becomes downcast and cynical, illegally using the information he received from Ellerbee to anonymously collect the $100,000 reward for Johnson's location. Sold out, he indulges in luxuries he had previously eschewed. It starts with a weekend away at the beach and develops into a move into a fancy penthouse apartment. To Roman’s surprise, Pierce apologizes to him, revealing that the death of Jackson and his observations of his dedication to justice has touched him. He reforms his firm to add a new focus on pro-bono cases, headed by Roman. Things begin to look good. Maya calls Israel to ask him out on a date, where she shares some of her struggles with idealism and thanks Israel for his inspiration about progressive lawyering and advocacy, but he appears unmoved as his new materialistic outlook prevents him from enjoying the changes he has inspired. When Pierce calls Israel to meet a new client arrested for murder, who turns out to be Carter Johnson, his world comes crashing down once more. At the jailhouse, Johnson accuses Roman of divulging privileged communications to collect the reward. Having accepted that he will spend the rest of his life in prison, Johnson's only goal is to torment Roman with the threat of jail time or even death. Roman finally suffers a breakdown and renounces his greedy, self-centered worldview. Roman returns the reward (with a promise to repay the $5,750 he spent), reconciles with Maya and Pierce and tries to motivate them to pursue their inner sense of justice. His reconciliation is played out by Roman writing a legal paper challenging himself while also defending himself. There was something poetic about it and I think the film would have been better if it had been left there but I’m afraid Dan Gilroy tarnishes his own story by adding an unnecessarily heavy-handed conclusion. I love how none of the characters were stereotyped, especially Colin Farrell’s Pierce, but the whole story seemed to go down the unfortunate Hollywood route towards the end. Gilroy has had a rather colourful career, writing films such as Freejack, The Fall, Real Steal and Kong: Skull Island while also writing and directing the brilliant Nightcrawler. You can’t really accuse him of having a particular style, he is an every-man, but with Nightcrawler and Roman J. Israel, Esq. you can see the sort of film he clearly wants to make. It’s all good but I wonder whether he still has too much Hollywood from his other work inside of him. The performances are great, and I loved the story but sometimes an ending can have such damage to a film you can be forgiven for feeling just a little bit cheated. However, it’s still a great film and an overlooked one, in spite of its ending.

Nightcrawler
Dir: Dan Gilroy
2014
*****
Dan Gilroy's directional debut is an absolute winner. Gilroy has been a script writer since the early 90's, he hasn't written many films that have been made and to be honest, the first I'd heard of him was when his name was mentioned as screen writer on the doomed Superman reboot; Superman Lives. Of the films he has written and that have been made, only a couple of them are of merit, so Nightcrawler maybe the sort of thing that happens when good writers are given full reign, Hollywood please take note. Nightcrawler appeals to me most because it feels like a 70's thriller (an era and genre I adore), an early Scorsese in style and somewhat Friedkinesque in mood. Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom is a modern day Travis Bickle, a unique product of society that is rarely explored and something I think cinema today needs more of. Nightcrawler is a villain led film, there are no bad guys. He's no lovable rouge or anti-hero either, the audience don't like him and they don't want him to win, which makes it quite a unique story and an edgy and somewhat uncomfortable thrill. The film is the visual embodiment of the idea that no one wants to look at a car crash, they just can't help themselves although it takes the idea one step further. It's a direct swipe at the news media (LA in particular) but also to the wider issue of audience. We know the media are corrupt but we keep on buying their news, how far will it go? Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing in his performance, it's clear he took the role by the horns and let it envelope him. It was his idea to loose weight for the role as he thought it would make him more 'Coyote' looking, Gyllenhaal saw the character as a hungry coyote so much so that 'Coyote' was almost the title of the film. His methods worked a treat as it is an unforgettable performance. It was also great to see the brilliant Riz Ahmed, an actor who always impresses me, in a supporting role. Ahmed has been quoted as saying that it is his favorite film that he's worked on after Four Lions and I think I'd have to agree. Dan Gilroy could be accused of nepotism in casting his wife in his debut but Rene Russo is actually perfect in her role, looking and sounding like the real deal, giving the film the important realism that makes it so effective. Nightcrawler is unbelievably creepy but totally believable at the same time, it's not quite satire but it is on the same page. I associate satire with comedy, Nightcrawler is in many respects a horror. A stand out film of the year and quite possibly a future classic.