{"id":13853,"date":"2026-01-19T21:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13853"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:14:22","slug":"an-oversimplification-of-her-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/01\/19\/an-oversimplification-of-her-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"An Oversimplification of Her Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"An Oversimplification of Her Beauty <\/strong>(2013)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Media MVMT-Variance Films\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (nude representations, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Terence Nance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terence Nance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Flying Lotus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew Bray and Shawn Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 7, 2013 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Terence Nance, Namik Minter, Alisa Becher, Jc Cain, Dexter Jones, Talibah Lateefah Newman, Chanelle Pearson.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve been reading a lot of glowing reviews of An Oversimplification of Her Beauty<\/strong> by prominent film critics and find myself asking if we saw the same movie. They\u2019ve been heaping quite a bit of praise on a film that, frankly, I find too pretentious and narcissistic to be enjoyed on any level.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let me first say that I\u2019m all for young filmmakers having their work seen by audiences outside of festivals. I also support, wholeheartedly, the work of young African-American filmmakers like Terence Nance. How long has it been since a young black filmmaker of note arrived on the indie scene? That is, one who breaks with the normal conventions of contemporary filmmaking in terms of form, style and content? I\u2019m talking somebody on same level as Spike Lee who made a striking debut with the low-budget feature She\u2019s Gotta Have It in 1986. I can\u2019t say whether or not Nance will find the same level of success as Lee, but he definitely shows a small hint of promise in his debut feature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Personally, I didn\u2019t like Oversimplification<\/strong> at all. For me, the whole thing is a pretentious bore. I just could not get into the story about a young hipster\u2019s unrequited love for his attractive lady friend. A cancelled rendezvous leads him to question the true nature of their relationship and feelings for each other. In fact, this guy overanalyzes this thing to the point where we get sick of listening to him. It\u2019s a very personal and introspective work and while I can appreciate that, it doesn\u2019t mean that I have to like it. I\u2019m just going to come out and say it, I hated this movie. Hated it with a passion! This guy irritated me almost as much as Greta Gerwig\u2019s character in Frances Ha. Maybe we should get the two of them together? Can you imagine how that movie would play out?<\/p>\n

\u00a0As far as I\u2019m concerned, Oversimplification<\/strong> isn\u2019t really about anything in terms of plot. It\u2019s really more a single idea expanded to feature length, the idea being this guy obsessing over a cancelled date. It breaks down like this. This young black man comes home after a long hectic day of working, looking forward to spending the evening with a female friend (Minter) for whom he harbors romantic feelings. He\u2019s in such a hurry to have everything perfect for her that he doesn\u2019t notice right away that he missed a call from her. When he calls her back, she tells him that she will not be coming over to see him. Why? She says that she just got home from work herself. Presumably, she\u2019s too tired. That\u2019s not he sees it. He starts going over it again and again in his mind. He wonders if that\u2019s the real reason she bailed on him at the last minute. He starts examining his past relationships and the reasons they didn\u2019t work out. In short, he makes it all about himself. She sees some fault in him that makes her not want to pursue a relationship with him. He analyzes the evolution of their relationship, from when they first met to the minute she cancelled out on him. By way of voiceover narration, he keeps asking the audience \u201cHow would you feel?\u201d to the point where it gets tiresome and irritating. The guy obsesses on this girl and the possible truths behind her cancelling out on him. Here\u2019s the deal, dude. She\u2019s just not that into you! Get over it! Dating sucks! It always has, it always will. Freaking deal with it, would you?! These are the things that I wanted to scream at this guy. I would have too if not for the sake of professionalism and courtesy to my fellow filmgoers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now I\u2019m sure to get lambasted for my negative review of Oversimplification<\/strong> by those who like it. They\u2019re going to say that I didn\u2019t \u201cget it\u201d. Not true. I get it. I get that Nance hits on something that all guys do when a woman breaks a date. When it happens, we tend to overanalyze it. If she says it\u2019s because she has to work late or that she\u2019s not feeling well or she\u2019s simply too tired, we believe her at first. But then the doubts start to seep in. Is this really why she bailed out on me? \u00a0Is she hiding something? Does she want to break up? Is there somebody else?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Looking at Oversimplification<\/strong> from a male perspective, he nails it. He gets inside the typical male mind and does so perfectly. He falters in his presentation. This movie is an extension of a short film (\u201cHow Would U Feel?\u201d) that he made a few years ago. He incorporates new scenes and animated sequences that elaborate on the themes of the original short piece. He has a unique vision, but it comes off as so pretentious that it\u2019s impossible to admire it. Oversimplification<\/strong> looks like the work of an arrogant film student who doesn\u2019t care if others understand it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As a writer-director, Nance comes off as something of a show-off with the movie\u2019s diverse styles and the dialogue peppered with a lot of four-dollar words. As an actor, he doesn\u2019t impress me at all. His character is annoying neurotic and clueless. Doesn\u2019t he see that the object of his obsession is really a fickle type incapable of loving anybody other than herself?<\/p>\n

\u00a0In my opinion, Oversimplification<\/strong> is nothing more than an ode to narcissism. But I suppose that\u2019s really the point, isn\u2019t it? When it comes to relationships, don\u2019t we all tend to make it about ourselves? How do I feel about the other person? Is it working out for me? Am I satisfied with it? We\u2019re all emotionally selfish to some degree; it\u2019s part of human nature. That still doesn\u2019t mean that I have to like it. I don\u2019t and I stand by that opinion. I do appreciate what he was going for, but not enough to recommend his movie.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2013)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Media MVMT-Variance Films\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (nude representations, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Terence Nance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terence Nance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Flying Lotus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew Bray and Shawn Peters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 7, 2013 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Terence Nance, Namik Minter, Alisa Becher, Jc Cain, Dexter Jones, Talibah Lateefah Newman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/An-Oversimplification-of-He.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13853"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13895,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13853\/revisions\/13895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}