The swooningly romantic, love-hexed, film-crazed, captivating, restless “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,” Terence Nance’s debut feature, is a teeming portmanteau mixed-media reverie on romance: he’s a filmmaker to watch, and not just with what comes next. Start with the title of his essay film: one time I look at it, I think, “Wut.” And the next? “Whoo.” It’s such a crazy clattery compound, it’s good, and a good label for what comes next. Working with live action, documentary, animation and multiple experimental techniques, Nance goes for the odd, the self-aware and the unabashedly philosophic about romance, even in the face of confounding failure. Prepare to either be giddily swamped or truly annoyed. Not everyone can find love in the same place. With Nance, Namik Minter, Chanelle Pearson. “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” was the winner of the IFP/Gotham Awards’ “Best Film Not Playing At A Theater Near You”; I was one of the jurors. 95m. (Ray Pride)
“An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” opens Friday at Facets. The trailer is below.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Talking Screens, December 16-22, 2022: "All The Beauty and The Bloodshed" is One of the Year's Finest | "Bardo" is a Small Story Told on an… "Avatar: The Way of Water," "All The Beauty and The Bloodshed," "The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari" and "Bardo." PLUS: Bresson's "Au Hasard Balthazar," Andersson's "About Endlessless"; FACETS' "Holiday Detour" series; Chicago filmmaker-in-residence Daniel Nearing's "Sister Carrie" with an orchestra at Siskel; "The Thirty-Ninth Christmas Sing-A-Long & Double Feature" at the Music Box and Music Box Of Horrors and Shudder pull…
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
RECOMMENDED
