Affairs of the Art (2021) User Reviews

through the eyes of an artist

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 16 February 2022]

Greetings again from the darkness. Is it acceptable to call Joanna Quinn and writer Les Mills 'frequent collaborators' when they have only made 4 short films together over a 34-year period? Regardless, this is their first since the BAFTA nominated DREAMS AND DESIRES: FAMILY TAKES (2006), and it features the return of the character Beryl (voiced again by Menna Trussler). This time their work has been rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Animated Short Film.

Beryl is an older lady admittedly obsessed with art. She's been that way since childhood and we see that she drew 'all the time', including the walls of her bedroom. During this 16-minute short film, Beryl reminisces about her family and the role art has played in her life. She explains how each family member had their own obsession, and mind you, Beryl is presenting all of this through the eye of an artist. The visuals and (hand-drawn) animation are truly spectacular and fit so well with Beryl's frenetic storytelling.

We each have our own zany family stories, and Ms. Quinn uses Beryl to discuss obsessive behavior. Topics include plastic surgery, taxidermy, and death ... each captured with artistic flair. There is a great line about being 'Trigger-happy', and this may be also be about "hyper-futurism" or vodka, take your pick.

A rather bizarre experience

[patronusquill · 6/10 · 14 January 2022]

There are worlds that mix with each other and are forced to coexist even though they seem strange to each other. In Affairs of the Art, family, death and art are balanced and they also coexist, sometimes too much, with each other. The characters, therefore, are most imaginative, realistic and strange; each with their own individual passion, each with their own contrasting qualities.

Animation plays a fundamental role in the construction of such a twisted and realistic artistic-family world, and it uses each of the advantages of traditional animation by hand to stay chaotic, not to fall into the static, the dead. Its best quality could also be its worst mistake: its intricate narrative, without connection or adherence, which serves mainly to complement the highly imaginative style of animation... to show us the observation, innovation, resolution, experience and preservation that comes from the soul of the artist, the soul of the Beryl family and probably of every person who indulges in art.

Of course, it also has its disadvantages, and those come from its great ability to offend its audience, to appear too cruel, too exaggerated and disrespectful, to generate conflict and disapproval. Probably if you are very sensitive you should not see it and hope that it fascinates you.

Affairs of the Art

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 6 April 2024]

I really did like the detailed quality of the active animation in this latest outing for "Beryl". She likes to draw, indeed she's obsessed with it - and alongside the eccentric behaviour of her husband "Ifor" and their son "Colin" we share in the joy of their collections of perfectly arranged screws, or her stuffed animals, indeed even a fanatical collection of jarred pickles. Nothing is undrawn. Meantime, her sister "Beverly" who has made a fortune extolling the virtues of all things nip and tuck is living the life of luxury in Los Angeles, and at times she is very reminiscent of one or two famous Hollywood stars whom it'd probably be libellous to name! It's a bit on the vulgar side towards the end, and though that might read a bit puritanical, I found it just dragged what was really quite creative and entertaining into the realms of something just a bit crass. Still, it's moves with one heck of a pace, there's a bit of quite pithy dialogue and for the most part it's decent, if a bit long of a watch.

Props to the animator

[Dog-River · 3/10 · 8 March 2022]

The animation is truly incredible. Now, I usually enjoy quirky characters, but there was just way too much animal abuse in this short for me, that it was repulsive and the disgusting sister and the dead body was very hard to watch. While I'm happy NFB got an Oscar nod, I just wish it was for a different film.

An absolute masterpiece

[laurenorme · 10/10 · 8 February 2022]

Director Joanna Quinn's lovable protagonist Beryl returns, telling her own story of her childhood, her family, and herself as an artist and a mother.

The storytelling in Affairs of the Art is fluid and compelling, the characters strikingly honest, and Joanna's distinctive style absolutely captivating. In this film about art, each hand drawn frame of the animation is a work of art in itself.

Affairs of the Art absolutely deserves all the awards buzz it's received, with wins across the festival circuit as well as BAFTA and Oscar nominations.

One for the animators maybe

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 17 March 2022]

"Affairs of the Art" is a co-production between the United Kingdom and Canada from 2021 and probably you could say that the latter is the more defining country here because of the inclusion of the National Film Board of Canada that has scored a lot with the Oscars over the years. Decades, actually. Director is Joanna Quinn, a previous Academy Award nominee, even if it was a long time ago, and now she scored her second nomination. Writer is Les Mills and she and Quinn have started working together a long time ago too. At 16 minutes, this film has pretty much the exact same running time as three other Oscar-nominated animated shorts from this year. Only one is really much longer, twice as long. But yeah, let's look at this one here now shall we: I think the photo/poster here on imdb already tells you pretty much what to expect. This is a very over-the-top animated short film in terms of the story and characters. Very loud at times too. And definitely very graphic, not for children. Also a truly fast film if you take a look at what the narrator, the woman you see on the photo keeps telling us as she summarizes her life and talks about those closest to her. This involves her husband, who really does nothing, but stand and walk around naked, but flashback sequences include other more interesting characters.

One would be the initially morbid sister of the protagonist and how she goes through the weirdest transformations. Physically of course, but also in terms of her mindset. The inclusions of her meeting Lenin and flying with him over the city were perhaps when this film really got the most absurd and that means quite something because the entire thing is an absurdity from beginning to end basically. Then there is a young man. Was it the main character's son? I think so. His story is also pretty bizarre and again a cat is involved. Like I said no good year for cats if we see how they are depicted in three of the five Oscar-nominated animated shorts this time. Anyway, I must say I also struggled with this film here overall, in terms of both style and story. You can see from my rating that I did not enjoy it too much and I think it is my least favorite from the nominees. I can still see why people like it. Especially for animators, there is truly a lot to discover here, but general audiences may have a hard time. Just like I did. The National Film Board of Canada is at times, in terms of animation, not one that is easy to appreciate honestly. So I give this film an entirely subjective thumbs-down overall, also because I felt they were going for comedy on many occasions, but it hardly managed to make me smile. Like ever. Also somehow the strangeness of it all did not feel really entertaining to me. Just my thoughts. I would not be particularly happy if this wins the Oscar, but I think it's not happening anyway. Best may be to skip. Or if you do wanna see all the nominees, then maybe this should be the one you watch last. Or first, to get it done quickly and focus on the superior works.

Quirky, sometimes uncomfortable, but sublime.

[pthomas-564-296199 · 10/10 · 29 March 2022]

Let's start with the animation; imagine if you took the animation of the Aha song Take on me, passed it to artist Gerald Scarfe to colour, then let Raymond Briggs round the contours of the drawings out before passing it to the animation team behind Akira for camera angles before they pass it back to Briggs, then letting it marinate in the cruelty of early 70s: the animation is spell binding and draws you in, and that's the really clever part of the hook, because when the film moves on to the cruelty of children and how vengeful they can be, you can't look away.

The story is a life snapshot of. Beryl, a child of the sixties recounting her family life events, and how she arrived at nearly 60 realising that her opportunity in art may have slipped by.

That's all I'm going to give you! Just bloody watch it!

Sick and disgusting film; satirizes animal abuse and killing cats

[p-58053-27078 · 1/10 · 1 January 2023]

This is a sick and disgusting film from apparent sociopaths. Joanna Quinn and Les Mills should be ashamed of themselves. Repeated depictions of animal abuse and killing cats for fun is not "art," nor entertainment, even in an adult animated short. Anyone here who applauds a ghoulish sadistic film like this should have their head examined, and possibly have any pets in their homes removed or at least monitored for signs of abuse. Art can provoke, but art that purposely offends clear moral boundaries around animal abuse is a sickness. There is nothing redeeming about killing pets for fun. It is appalling the Academy nominated this sociopath's fantasy film for an Oscar. I could not watch this perverted sadistic short past the scenes of children purposely abusing and killing a pet mouse by blowing it up with firecrackers and then killing a pet cat with a bow and arrow. The film is barely 16 minutes, yet it manages to depict children killing two pets in the first half. Shameful, gruesome, cruel and horrid.

Provocative

[PedroPires90 · 8/10 · 7 March 2022]

I'm not surprised by these reviews, especially in times that people are waaay extra politically correct and this short has no shame to be offensive and provocative.

Love every second of it. It was hilarious, with meaningful society criticisim, cool animation and unafraid to shock. My type of thing, my favourite of the shorts I've watched this year, but will never win the Oscars.

eccentricities

[Kirpianuscus · 28 May 2023]

Nice drawings, explosion of imagination, fair portrait of a family and dark humor in large doses. And exploration of cruelty, in different forms, with cold results.

The irony rules in this case , and it is very less pleasant. Because , as a sort of roller coster, it is a splendid analysis of different ages and their bizzare behaviors, crisis of maturity, a gray marriage and the kids and their ways of succes.

Not the last, moving for sort of nice translation of melancholia, for familiar crumbs of childhood , for dialogues and small details , for the spirit of child, from fascinations or experiments to the pure forms of cruelty.

So, a sort of short animation animated by reflections of eccenticity.