CNN — Morf Vanderwalt, the acerbic art critic played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Netflix film “Velvet Buzzsaw,” is never short of a bon mot. He said during a phone interview that Dease’s character is “loosely based on the notion of an outsider artist like Henry Darger.” A section of "Realms of the Unreal" by Henry Darger, the American outsider artist …
Velvet Buzzsaw, the new Netflix original film, is a vapid, self-congratulatory mess that’s as satisfying as watching paint dry, or slowly drip off the canvas, as is the case here. Velvet Buzzsaw’s narrative pendulates frustratingly between satire and camp horror, possessing the virtues of neither. It lacks a strong centre because the narrative keeps shifting simplistically from one main character …
The art installation, so often a playground in the contemporary art museum, is in Dan Gilroy’s gloriously gory satire “Velvet Buzzsaw” a terror chamber. Among them are Morf Vandewalt, a power-wielding critic, “god” in this designer-label universe; Rhodora Haze, a big-time dealer whose old nickname is both the film’s title and the tattoo on her shoulder; buyer Gretchen, who can …