An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (DVD REVIEW)
An Oversimplification of Her
Beauty
DVD Review by Kam
Williams
Jay-Z Produced
Romantic Romp Arrives on DVD
When a gangsta rapper like Jay-Z decides
to dabble in filmmaking, it only makes sense that the flick might remind you
more of his genre of popular music than a typical movie. That’s precisely the
case with An Oversimplification of Her
Beauty, an unorthodox romance drama produced by the incomparable hip-hop icon.
Written,
directed, edited, scored, narrated by and animated by Terrence Nance (How Would
You Feel?), the surreal adventure co-stars Renaissance Man Nance opposite Namik
Minter as friends in a platonic relationship on the verge of turning venereal.
The ambitious, multimedia undertaking not only mixes cartoon and live-action
images, but it also walks a fine line between drama and documentary.
While
the protagonists try to sort out their feelings, the picture poses some
thought-provoking questions, such as, “How do you balance logic and emotions?”
Unfortunately, the film is afflicted with a fatal flaw, namely, a virtually
non-stop narration of the play-by-play which starts to get on your nerves after
about five minutes.
Granted,
this could just be an age thing, since the Hip-Hop Generation is already used
to hearing incessant, mindless, staccato-style chatter in their favorite songs.
So, it might not be that big a jump for them to have to listen to a non-stop
voiceover for the duration of a movie. Nevertheless, the slick poetry slam
approach definitely didn’t do it for this critic.
Another annoying aspect of the experience was
how the audience is addressed directly by the disembodied voice, as in “You
arrive at your home,” “You empty your pockets,” “You have no bed and no money,”
“You possess no means of personal transportation,” and so forth. Granted, Jay McInerney effectively employed the 2nd person in his
best-selling novel “Bright Lights, Big
City,” but it simply
fails to work here as a cinematic device.
Ghetto
psychobabble strictly for the attention-deficit demographic.
Fair (1 star)
Unrated
Running time: 93
minutes
Distributor: Cinema
Guild
DVD Extras: Audio
commentary with director Terence Nance; audio commentary with actress Namik
Minter; Exorcising Rejection (2008, 8 mins), a short film by Terence Nance; How
Would You Feel? (2006, 7 mins), the original short film by Terence Nance; deleted
scenes; and the theatrical trailer.
To see a trailer for
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, visit:
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