Affairs of the Art

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.