End Credits - February 6, 2019 (Velvet Buzzsaw)

It's another week on End Credits, your friendly neighbourhood film criticism show that's happy and not pretentious at all. Speaking of pretentious, we get into the snooty art world of Velvet Buzzsaw this week. We also get into the mind of a Hollywood master of transformation, and we get into the minds of the people running the DC movie universe. We also talk about the world of streaming, and whether Netflix is evil, or at least Canadian evil.

This Wednesday, February 6, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Vince Masson will discuss:

Uneven Steven. Steven Soderbergh has got a new film coming out this week, but he's taking a little time for some self-reflection on the junket tour. Looking back at his last two movies, Logan Lucky and Unsane, Soderbergh is still left with the quandary of how best to market a movie, what works, and what doesn't? Speaking of what works, Soderbergh is now with Netflix, so Vince, our resident Soder-expert, is going to talk about the filmmaker's latest reinvention.

Not Batman Forever. To few people's surprise, Ben Affleck was unceremoniously dumped as the Batman of the DCEU, and just as the studio was about to launch another solo Dark Knight adventure. While Wonder Woman and Aquaman have been tremendous successes, this episode shows that there's still a lot of work to do to right the proverbial ship that's the DC Universe. But is firing all the people that played the heroes the way to rebuild?

C.B. See B.S. If you thought the days of imperialist powers was over, then you haven't talked to the CBC lately. The President of the CBC, Catherine Tait, said that Netflix represented cultural imperialism akin to the British and French colonial empires of the 17th and 18th centuries. There's no doubt that Netflix is taking over the world, but Netflix also takes a lot of Canadian hits abroad and makes them international hits. So does Tait have things backwards?

Streaming Dreams. When the internet closes one door, it somehow opens a window. It was announced last week that the cloud site Ultraviolet is shutting down in July, putting a lot of digital libraries at risk since a redemption code has come with almost every disc sold since 2011. If you're bummed, that's okay, you can take comfort in the fact that the Criterion Channel is coming, and it's coming to Canada too. So it is it a good week or bad week for streaming?

REVIEW: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019). The last time that Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, and Dan Gilroy teamed up it was for Nightcrawler, Gilroy's audacious directorial debut about the cut throat world of "If-it-bleeds-it-leads" journalism in Los Angeles. Back with another L.A. tale, Gilroy cuts throats, and other body parts, in this art world satire that's part 80s slasher, and part snarky takedown of self-important gallery taste makers, but can Gilroy make the two halves of his movie work, or does high concept not make for high art in this new streaming hit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdAR-lK43YU&t=30s

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.