Jake Gyllenhaal Vs The Art World
Farce meets frights in Netflix's Velvet Buzzsaw, the funniest and spookiest parody of the contemporary art world yet
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Helmi Yusof
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HAS THERE EVER been a movie about the contemporary art market quite like Velvet Buzzsaw? It's funny, wacky, chic, cynical, bizarre and, above all, spot-on. It has incredible outfits, sumptuous homes, and the describing of colours in very specific terms ("smog orange", "saddle brown", "cornsilk", "almond").
People talk of money even when they're not talking about money. They make over-the-top statements like "I'm ensorcelled" and "Before the sublime, the whole body quivers." There's snobbery and sarcasm, backscratching and bootlicking, romance and sex.
The characters' names are magnificently campy - Jon Dondon, Morf Wandewalt, Rhodora Haze, Vetril Dease, Mertilla Splude - but it perfectly reflects the contemporary art scene that's become so international.
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