VELVET BUZZSAW (full review at Screen Realm)

Velvet Buzzsaw is Dan Gilroy’s third directorial effort and sees him reuniting with Nightcrawler alumni Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo. Nightcrawler was a seedy, darkly comic delight, as Gyllenhaal trawled the streets of L.A. in search of salacious traffic accident material, with a script that spun his moral compass as if exposed to magnetism. In between, Gilroy wrote and directed Roman J. Israel, Esq. (with Denzel Washington) and co-wrote the screenplay for the hugely enjoyable Kong: Skull Island. So with such a diverse and enjoyable pedigree, it’s fair to say expectations were high for Velvet Buzzsaw’s Netflix debut.

Pompous art critic Morf Vandewalt’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) endorsements are highly sought after. He is a man with the power to make or break artists in the Los Angeles art world. So when Morph’s girlfriend Josephina (Zawe Ashton) comes to the aid of a dying man, Vetril Dease (Alan Mandell), and discovers a huge amount of artwork in his apartment, she shows it to Morph and her boss Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) believing she has discovered a massive unknown talent. With the weight of Morph’s influence and Rhodora’s gallery behind it, Dease’s work sets the art world alight and becomes a huge success. Shortly after this success however, the owners of the paintings start to die under mysterious circumstances.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/velvet-buzzsaw-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: Velvet Buzzsaw

NIGHTCRAWLER

Nightcrawler follows the story of Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhall), a small-time petty thief and nominal jobhunter eeking his way around Los Angeles trying to make ends meet. Whilst driving home one evening Lou chances upon a dramatic road traffic accident and, stopping to investigate, becomes aware of the career potential in 'nightcrawling' Nightcrawling is the practice of trawling the police band radio every night for juicy accidents and crimes to film, translating into lucrative sales to the ratings hungry, morally abject local TV news stations. Lou gets a lucky break and manages to sell a graphic, but poor-quality video of a fatal carjacking to local news chief Nina (Rene Russo), who recognises a crude talent.  Nina encourages Lou to bring her further footage, and so he gets his foot in the door of a seedy news industry, where the grimmer the tragedy, the bigger the paycheck. Lou hires an assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), to help him navigate the labyrinthine Los Angeles streets and decipher the coded police calls they track from the car. As Lou's career ascends, so too do the lengths he will go to frame a good shot or best his competition.

Lacking in any sort of moral compass, Lou manipulates everything and everyone he comes into contact with, from his assistant Rick, to the bodies at a crime scene. Nothing is off-limits and everything is a 'sale'. A gaunt looking Jake Gyllenhaal is super creepy as Lou, superficially earnest and hardworking, but underlying it all he is a sociopathic void. Lou is constantly spouting weird business platitudes as he gives it the bug-eye. Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed are excellent as the closest thing Lou has to friends, and it's fantastic to see Bill Paxton as a sleazy nightcrawling competitor. Note: it is scientifically impossible for Bill Paxton to be bad in anything. He rules.

On the face of it, Nightcrawler might sound like a grim ride, and although it feels OTT at times, it is no less compelling for it. It's grimly amusing in its own way. The absurdity of Lou Bloom's detachment and  lack of empathy, combined with his self-help book motivational creed, lend themselves to some darkly comic scenarios. If you've ever pondered whether ambitious people are dangerous, then Nightcrawler is going to give you some bad dreams. It's a stylish yet seedy study of what happens when blind ambition and moral ambiguity collide. An extreme portrait of aspiration as a weapon.

IMDB: Nightcrawler