An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Terence Nance, 2013)

Occasionally frustrating in its hard-to-follow density, Terence Nance's An Oversimplification of Her Beauty is nevertheless a strikingly innovative work from an independent artist who not only warrants the kind of celebrity support attached to this project but, more importantly, survives the potentially counterproductive hype such patronage brings. A postmodern deconstruction of the "friend zone" concept, Nance's film indulges his self-pity but ultimately critiques it with a vivid, constantly evolving film that attacks his myopic viewpoint from multiple angles, even from the perspective of the desired woman marginalized in his fantasy into simply the girl who rejected him. It's as exciting a work as I've seen in a while, and I can't wait to see what Nance does next.

My full review is up at Spectrum Culture.