A Review of 'Minted: The Rise (and Fall?) of the NFT' – A good account of the fortunes and failures of digital art
Unforeseen issues erupt after an amateur digital artist sells his artwork online for a huge amount and opens up a profitable market for his peers.
'Minted: The Rise (and Fall?) of the NFT' – A pretty good account of the fortunes and failures of digital art
Cast: Beeple, Andrew Chow, Kevin McCoy, Zachary Small, Vignesh Sundaresan, Laura Shin, Diana Sinclair, Jasti, the Yusuf Twins, Young & Sick, Rac, Fvckrender, Mitchell Chan, Latashá, Justin Aversano, Kina Matahari, James Grimmelmann, Loish, Gino the Ghost, Adam Lindermann, Swan Sit, topshotkief, Jimmy McNelis, Paolo De, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Takashi Murakami, Robert Frank (archive), Trevor Noah (archive), Bill Maher (archive), Stephen Colbery (archive), Yves Klein (archive), Jimmy Fallon (archive), Paris Hilton (archive)
Critic’s Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Director: Nicholas Bruckman
Duration: 1 hour, 17 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Language: English, Spanish (with English subtitles)
Release: 2023, (released on April 9, 2025 by Netflix)
What’s it about?
Unforeseen issues erupt after an amateur digital artist sells his artwork online for a huge amount and opens up a profitable market for his peers.
Review:
When computers and art combine, we are looking at a whole new dimension of creativity. But will such a fantastic revolution and exciting paradigm shift prove to be a double-edged sword? This enlightening and often riveting documentary sets out to narrate the story of digital artwork or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) over a dramatic two-year period (2021-2022). Along the way, we get to meet various artists, collectors, journalists, academics and specialists, whose lives revolve around the fascinating new industry. Indeed, nearly two dozen respondents share their experience of the phenomenon, though the occasional bombardment of information is hard to grasp entirely.
The filmmakers compellingly narrate this get-rich-quick occurrence that also provided a forum for struggling artists and keen collectors. But what starts off as an astoundingly lucrative enterprise devolves into risky business with wildly fluctuating fortunes. Yes, tremendous monetary profits and sudden recognition soon find themselves up against drastic value-depreciations and scams. But will all the players in this mesmerising game continue to stake their claim? This true story is told with a fair degree of flair. Yes, it is well paced and filled with interesting sound-bytes, case-studies, archive footage, graphics and textured imagery. Though not clearly demarcated into chapters, the narrative flows nicely. However, there is an overkill of some talking heads.
NFTs that are transacted through an online ledger called Blockchain draw widespread attention when a 3-D artist, who calls himself “Beeple”, earns USD 69 million at an auction. The incredible payday comes in culmination of 15 years of his computer-generated work. Suddenly, the mega-sale is big news with talk show hosts expounding on the immense potential of the new artistic medium. With the sluice gates now open, aspiring teen artists like Diana Sinclair from Passaic, New Jersey, and the Yusuf twins from Lagos, Nigeria, earn big bucks by placing their pieces in online NFT markets. The platform is also an avenue of expression for the politically-disgruntled Cuban citizen Kina Matahari. In bringing these beneficiaries on camera, the film taps into the audience’s desire for a delicious success story.
‘Minted’ interestingly prefaces these triumphant tales with the stories of precursor visionaries - like 1950’s Parisian artist Yves Klein, who devised a system of owning tokens of artwork but not the art piece itself; and Kevin McCoy, who experimented with 1990s’ computer tools like Photoshop towards creating commercial artwork. This documentary also explores the expansion of NFT’s scope by introducing us to self-made hip-hop performer Latashá and photographer Justin Aversano. But this too-good-to-be-true bubble seems destined to burst. Initial deflation occurs when the market for fine art faces unfair competition from the simplistic Profile Pictures (PFPs) or Cryptopunk images. This while counterfeiting also rears its ugly head. Then, some traders lose their purchased NFTs due to online malfeasance with no legal recourse, while others’ monies are wiped out by recessional economic trends. Meanwhile, people like Latashá and Justin encounter unexpected roadblocks in taking their art to physical auditoriums and galleries.
However, the film does end on a positive note, showing us how some artists’ initial exposure and earnings from NFTs continue to feed their ambition and help them to build communities. This, while others like Beeple, are compelled to give back in significant and far-reaching ways. Insightful contributions about the NFT storm from Time magazine journalist Andrew Chow, Cornell University Prof. James Grimmelmann and The Cryptopians author Laura Shin, are among the film’s plusses. However, this celluloid venture could have shed more light on the lack of cyber laws pertaining to Blockchain and the ongoing efforts to institute such. In conclusion however, this film is a relevant and fitting tribute to the NTF phenomenon and shows us how it not only enabled budding artists to mint money but also earn expression and goodwill.
