Nancy

Nancy is a weird psycho-drama that keeps you guessing. It stars Andrea Riseborough as Nancy Freeman, a somewhat damaged woman who goes online and pretends to be someone she’s not in order to connect with people. She has a mundane life where she temps at a dental office and cares for her sick mother. When her mother dies, Nancy sees a news segment on a couple, Leo (Steve Buscemi) and Ellen (J. Smith-Cameron), whose daughter disappeared thirty years ago. The facial reconstruction photo looks similar to Nancy and she contacts the grieving parents. From there it’s pretty much what you’d expect. There’s an awkward first meeting, suspicions arise, and a DNA test is taken. Andrea Riseborough looked awfully familiar to me so I had to look her up and saw that she has been killing the game for the last few years (Mandy, Black Mirror, The Death of Stalin, Battle of the Sexes, Nocturnal Animals and the list goes on). She is pretty creepy as Nancy but somehow also manages to be sympathetic. Veteran actors Buscemi and Smith-Cameron nail the grieving parents who would rather focus on hope than succumb to bitterness. Director Christina Choe opts for the more subtle approach, denying us of many details about Nancy in order to up the drama. Even at the end Nancy is still a mystery to us. And the last shot of the film left me creeped out and not sure how to feel.

Film or Movie: Film
You’ll like this film if:
1. You want to see Andrea Riseborough kill another role
2. You like psycho-dramas
3. You want to support female directors