Art Boy
2020 · 10m · USA
Directed by Taylor Ervin
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic
A gallery assistant slinks through Chinatown peddling personas instead of paintings. Voice-of-God narration sneers down at a scene where the art is somehow the least interesting thing in the room.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
An art-world satire that knows everyone in the gallery is performing — and lets a narrator say it out loud. That's the kind of contempt I want from a short.
Voice-of-God narrator sneering over a downtown gallery day — Ervin's Stillman-rerouted-through-the-side-door move is precisely my register, and the omniscient frame earns its condescension. Sharp.
Omniscient narrator dryly editorializing over a day in the NY art world — voice-of-God sneer as the structural device. Risky tone but a real choice; either the narration is wittier than the scene or it's redundant.
Reviews
Sharp-edged depiction of an art scene where the actual art is a second tier concern over the lifestyles and personas