AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY: The Power Of Metacinematic Poetry

We all know that relationships have the ever-present potential to be tricky hurdles to navigate, especially when it comes to fully defining the separations between the platonic and romantic. Often requiring numerous compromises and communication to work, the result can still be quite confounding. Though there exists a treasure trove of material out there to help “better” relationships, most of it offers little that can apply to actual individual situations, as we all handle our relationships differently with each person to which we connect.

Terence Nance takes this ambiguity one step further, where being stood up on a date lead him to create a multilayered cinematic experience exploring the nature of feelings, as well as the role movies play in conveying emotion. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty is equal parts documentary, narrative short, and metacinematic essay, that blend wonderfully together as an exorcism of repressed toxicity.

What’s It About?

The film is divided into two distinct parts: How Would You Feel? (Nance’s original short film serving as the foundation for the rest of the film) and An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (which features rebuttals from theater audiences, and the film’s subject Namik Minter). Each part interrupts the other like VHS tapes being ejected and swapped, while full-throated narration switching between key individuals provide contextual information to build as comprehensive image of the situation as possible.

The situation is that an artist (Nance), attempting to spend time with a woman (Minter), hypothesizes about why he feels bad when she phones to let him know she will not be coming. This event is played from different perspectives at different steps in the story, laying out the whole of the film’s near-decade long production period as the narrative’s full timeline. While based on an actual event from the principle players’ lives, Nance uses this seemingly innocuous action to swim deeper into what subsists in momentary feelings, and whether these reactions are the sum total of our life’s experiences.

Though the perverse subjectivity of memory and attraction are constantly in flux as a major conversation, it would be irresponsible to say that was indeed the main discussion of the film. Honestly, this may be one of the more difficult cinematic experiences to cram into a cohesive description, as by its very structural nature and plethora of micro-themes, it is almost completely unclassifiable (almost as if Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad merged with Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki). Though initially it can impress as an assault on the senses, its metacontexual approach ensures copious freedom to explore emotionality clashing against rationality via thoroughly creative visual and audio flourishes.

Let’s Get Technical

Nance, Matthew Bray and Shawn Peters’ cinematography is a mixed bag; it shuffles between tightly orchestrated shot compositions to rough-and-tumble recordings with varying degrees of quality and effectiveness. Though as a whole, this mesh of camera styles only serves to make the experience stronger and more eclectic, in the moment it can be easily dismissed as being overly scatterbrained.

The film’s large array of animators (from stop-motion to hand-drawn) have crafted an impressive collection of sequences peppered throughout the runtime, allowing Nance to explore existential and interpersonal crises in areas where traditional live-action cinema cannot go. The hypnotic score provided by experimental musician Flying Lotus is flush with a multitude of unabashed genre-blending, and his spectacular soundtrack deserves its own independent release.

All aforementioned aspects however are hallmarked by Nance’s brilliant mixture of collage and montage editing. With many years’ worth of material and angst to parse, to simply call An Oversimplification of Her Beauty an ambitious editorial project is almost insulting, and if a film of similar ilk exists, I have absolutely no knowledge of it. In many cases, poetic avant garde cinema playing with densely abstruse themes can easily unwind as the runtime continues, unable to support its lofty ideas. Nance however, maintains a consistent omnipresent tone and rhythm which manages to build on each section preceding with almost razor-like precision, enabling the film to become even more contemplative and visually engaging as it runs towards its conclusion.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty: Conclusion

As I struggle to assemble summative thoughts, only one thing remains clear: that this film was and still is greatly underappreciated as a formabile feature work. It grew in critical acclaim after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, eventually even snagging Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You at the Gotham Independent Film Awards. However, after its initial push by executive producers Jay-Z, Wyatt Cenac and Dream Hampton, the film slid back into obscurity due to its style and presentation attracting little demand for a wide theatrical release.

Whether or not you side with anyone in the film on any of the themes, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty is a solid stroke of inventive creativity and artistic integrity, all buttressed by a profound love and understanding of film.

Have you seen An Oversimplification of Her Beauty? Tell us you thoughts in the comments below!

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty opened with a Limited Release in the United States on April 12, 2013. It is available on Sundance Now, DVD and VOD.