TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

evanston_dad Two of the 2015 Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary Feature dealt with artists (specifically singers) who were ultimately undone by their self-destructive tendencies. "Amy" told the sad story of Amy Winehouse, whose struggles with addiction and eating disorders cut her life and career tragically short. "What Happened, Miss Simone?" is about Nina Simone, who used her music to fuel the anger of the civil rights movement until her flame burnt out. Both women changed the nature of their art form; both women were taken from the world much too soon.But for all the similarities, the stories of the two women are quite different. Amy Winehouse is a pathetic figure. We watch as she passively lets fame destroy her. Nina Simone, on the other hand, is full of rage, rage that vents itself through her music. If Winehouse lets strife happen to her, we get the sense that Simone brings it on herself. It's as if she can't handle the anger that a sense of injustice toward the world stokes inside her and destroys herself as a way to be rid of it.Watching Simone sing "Mississippi Goddamn" while seeing images of the Civil Rights movement, images evocative of the recent violence toward blacks perpetrated by law enforcement officials throughout the country, brought home to me how far we still need to go in our efforts toward racial equality and why the slogan "Black Lives Matter" should be heeded by all.Grade: A-

kyra-54901 This film is pure propaganda. Starting with the accusatory title that blames the victim, this film is the poster-child for the most offensive patriarchal drivel.Nina Simon was a powerful Black woman. Of course they had to make her look crazy. RACISM set the stage and PATRIARCHY literally kicked her in the gut and kept her down and working for the man until the day she died. The first 7 names listed as staring in this documentary are all men. Nina is listed as 14th. This film is not about Nina Simon. It is a propaganda smear of all those who want to keep the legacy of this genius marginal at best. Nina Simon literally had to run for her life (or safety at least) from an intensely abusive husband who punched her in the stomach when she was pregnant, beat her regularly, is quoted saying in the film that one of his beatings was so bad he "taped" her eye himself and never sought medical treatment, and Nina is quoted saying that he "tied me to the bed and rape me"; and who worked her like a slave with no understanding of her as a woman or as a human; and who when Nina fled from him, abandoned their daughter. And although Nina was beaten, raped, overworked, misunderstood, and clearly a frustrated genius trying to survive in a hateful world that was and still is terrified by her power as a Black person and as a woman, and who was not protected by, but rather further and severely abused and exploited by her husband—rather than being jailed for his crimes against Nina Simone—was the director's choice to use in the film to attest to her character. When Nina fled, her husband just left. He abandoned his daughter and yet the film manages to make Nina look like the abuser for fleeing, even though once she was secure in Liberia she sent for her daughter. It is also conspicuous that when she is recorded saying that he was completely impotent and never would touch her or make love to her the directors did not once use the pleading song Sugar in My Bowl in this film.Mostly white men and her abusive husband, and daughter are interviewed. Her daughter is clearly still trying to make sense of an intensely genius and complex mother, who was worked to death, who only became abusive toward her daughter after she was pushed to the brink and had fled for her life, and who came out of a complex, racist, misogynistic and hateful time. It follows suit that this film would be nominated for best doc by an academy that is exclusive and racist, further perpetuating the legacy of white patriarchal racism of keeping any powerful Black human—and in particular, a Black woman—outside its domain. Other than Nina's own words, the only other words that made even an inkling of sense in this film—and they made up only TWO SENTENCES—was by Malcolm X's daughter, Attallah Shabazz who says of Nina Simon: "She was African royalty. How does royalty stomp around in the mud and still do it with grace?"

David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. Classical pianist, extraordinary singer, highly sought after live performer, Civil Rights activist, and inspiration to so many … it's only fitting that Nina Simone is now the subject of an Oscar nominated documentary. Talented filmmaker Liz Garbus (also Oscar nominated for 1998's The Farm: Angola, USA) provides a biography that is both a deep-dig and somewhat gentle look at this fascinating and troubled woman.Born Eunice Waymon in North Carolina during the Jim Crow era, she was the church pianist at age 4, and later studied classical piano with the dream of becoming the first black female classical pianist to play Carnegie Hall. While attending Julliard, she worked at an Atlantic City bar where, in an effort to hide the gig from her parents, she created the stage name Nina Simone (after the popular French actress Simone Signoret). It was also at this bar where she was first forced to sing … a step that changed the course of her life.The film begins by showing her return to the stage at the1976 Montreaux Festival in Switzerland after a seven year self-imposed exile (most recently in Liberia). We then head back to her humble childhood and follow her progression as she blends her Bach-influenced piano style with an expressive vocal style in jazz, gospel, pop, R&B and soul … resulting in the nickname "High Priestess of Soul".What we see is a woman with remarkable talent and ferocious drive who just never is satisfied with society or her place in it … despite the positive impact she had as a musician and activist. Ms. Garbus uses some rare archival performance footage … such as her singing "I Loves You Porgy" while appearing on Hugh Hefner's "Playboy Penthouse TV show and "Mississippi Goddam" during the march with Martin Luther King. We also hear Nina telling her own story through previously unheard audio recordings, and we have access to diary entries and personal letters. These are combined with insightful interviews from her ex-husband and manager Andrew Stroud, collaborators like Al Shackman (her guitarist) and George Wein (founder of Newport Jazz Festival), and her daughter Lisa Simone Kelly.What we soon see is a combination of other-worldly talent and a woman filled with rage and depression, and who is isolated inside her own uneasiness. Her later diagnosis and medication for bi-polar syndrome allowed her to better function in those last years. Her lack of attentiveness to her kids is kind of glossed over, but we understand how it made sense for her kids to spend more time at the home of the Shabazz family (Malcolm X) than with their own parents.It's a shame that Ms. Simone could never appreciate her achievements, the impact she had in the Civil Rights movement and the inspiration her music brought to so many. Even playing Carnegie Hall was not enough for her as she wasn't on stage as the classical pianist of her dreams. Her biggest mainstream musical recognition stemmed from her song "My Baby Just Cares for Me" being used for a1987 Chanel No. 5 advertisement, but fortunately the rest of us can understand her place in history as a rare talent and societal influencer. She truly put a spell on us.

xaymacagal I woke up reflecting on "What Happened, Miss Simone?" and am now feeling like I spent last night sitting through some home movies at a family reunion.Am thinking that a documentary about the great Nina Simone should have left me feeling like I had thrown back five vodka martinis (all imagined folks...I don't roll like that)....Am thinking about the times...her deep isolation as a child prodigy...her musical mentors...her contemporaries (Malcolm, Stokely, Belafonte, Farrakhan -- all four Caribbean men BTW, Jimmy B, the Panthers, Mahalia, Maya, et. al. ...her art in service of the movement...her ambivalence about European classical music vs. pop/jazz/movement music...her moodiness at performances that rivaled Miles' darkness...her many musical collaborators...her unbound sexual appetite...her mental illness...her exile to West Africa then Europe...her money troubles...her abandonment of her child...her husband's financial, emotional, and physical violence...her white savior...race...colorism....I mean, this is the woman who did this: >>>One time in New York I went to see an off-Broadway play with Bill Dukes and Brock Peters - two fine black actors - in the cast. I thought the roles they played were insulting to black people, and I got up there on stage in the middle of the show and told them so. I stopped the play in its tracks to ask them why they were doing trash like that. One of them said something about needing the money, but that was no excuse. They apologized, and took me home in a cab. I was half-crazy with anger that night, a woman on fire, and that was how I felt most of the time as I watched my people struggling for their rightful place in America. <<< This is an extract from her autobiography, I Put a Spell On You http://www.goodreads.com/bo…/show/88328.I_Put_a_Spell_on_YouThis doc could have been toothier if the filmmakers had focused on the woman and her extraordinary life...and perhaps not given as much space to her ex-husband and her daughter....