Review: The Nomi Song

The film is a riveting mix of taking-head interviews, archival footage, and musical performance pieces.

The Nomi Song
Photo: Palm Pictures

A riveting mix of taking-head interviews, archival footage, and musical performance pieces, Andrew Horn’s anecdote-heavy documentary chronicles Ziggy-Stardust-cum-Dieter avant-gardist Klaus Nomi’s impact on the East Village counterculture and his betrayal of the “Nomi world” after signing with RCA France. Horn compellingly chronicles the New Wave wunderkind’s ability to tap into a missing link in the New York music scene with an intergalactic shtick and frightening falsetto unlike anything anyone had ever heard before and the man’s 15 minutes (okay, well, it was longer than that) after landing a gig as a backup singer for David Bowie and getting to jam on Saturday Night Live. Nomi died of AIDS in 1983 with very little friends, and while he remains somewhat of a cipher here, his identity resonates in his music. This is something Horn understands, allowing songs like “Lightnin’ Strikes” and “Simple Man” to repeatedly evoke the otherworldly Nomi’s crippling loneliness and search for love. Appropriately bookended by scenes from Jack Arnold’s awesome Cold War-era alien flick It Came From Outer Space, The Nomi Song truly suggests that Klaus Sperber (Nomi’s birth name) came to us from a different time and place.

Score: 
 Cast: Klaus Nomi, Ann Magnuson, Gabriele Lafari, David McDermott, Page Wood, Tony Frere, Man Parrish, Kristian Hoffman, Ron Johnson, Kenny Scharf, Anthony Scibelli, Alan Platt  Director: Andrew Horn  Screenwriter: Andrew Horn  Distributor: Palm Pictures  Running Time: 96 min  Rating: NR  Year: 2004  Buy: Video

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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