Popular reviews

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  Review by laird ★★★★½ 1

  Paraphrasing a subject: "Participating in civil rights activism was rough on any family. Now imagine being a genius woman when that wasn't something society was ready to recognize... Nina Simone wasn't at odd with the times. The times were at odds with her."

  Heartbreaking and beautiful. It's not going to win any awards for form, but the archival content and research more than make up for its plainness. I would have watched this as a multi-part miniseries that expanded on each part of Nina Simone's career, but as a feature length overview that appropriately focuses the majority of its time on her shift from pop-star to radical, it's still pretty great. Why isn't this in theaters?

  (Just kidding, I can think of a few reasons why... America, goddamn)

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  Review by jourdain searles 3

  disturbingly uncritical about the abuse she suffered and centers her abuser too much

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 2

  far too staid for such a revolutionary woman, but Nina shines through via brilliant archival footage.

  it's 2015. Jay Leno is off tv, we have flying meth drones, an orange man is speaker of the house. time to retire talking heads in docs.

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  Review by sprizzle ★★★★

  If you're not familiar with Miss Nina Simone, you need to watch this documentary. Certain documentaries come out and are important. This is one of those documentaries. One of the biggest popular culture figures in the civil rights movement, Miss Simone played a crucial part in motivating young, gifted, and black students across America. She was extremely controversial, especially when her focus shifted towards a more a violent message. But she was determined to do whatever it took. If that meant losing her spotlight, so be it.

  An extremely gifted musician and an even more interesting figure in American culture. The documentary does a great job of piecing together tons of old footage of Nina Simone and other public figures at the time. A great job of weaving in some made footage with the found footage. It accomplishes exactly what it wants to and I hope a lot of people get to see it.

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  Review by Marvin Böhme ★★★★½

  Nina Simone war eine der begnadetsten Soul-, Jazz-, Blues- und Gospelsängerinnen, die jemals gab, stets markant gewesen durch ihre tiefe, seelisch fragile und doch herrschende Predigt-Stimme, die man wohl niemals mehr wieder in dieser Art hören wird.
  "Legende" trifft den Nagel auf den Kopf.

  Sie startete in den späten 50er-Jahren, eine Zeit, in der sie schon eine ganze Weile die rassischen Problemen in der amerikanischen Gesellschaft ertragen musste. Doch als das Civil Rights Movement Mitte der 60er so richtig ins Rollen kam, war sie neben Aretha Franklin DIE Stimme auf Seiten der Frauen. Doch bald ändert sich ihr Verhalten. Plötzlich schwanken ihre Emotionen und ihre Ansichten radikalisieren sich vermehrt, ohne dass man es ernst nahm. Ihre (gewaltvolle) Ehe und ihre…

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  Review by russman ★★★ 3

  We've reached a point as a society where subtitles are needed to read cursive handwriting

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★½

  "I want to shake people up so bad."

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  Review by Ben Hibburd ★★★★½ 5

  "What Happened, Miss Simone" is an excellent documentary that covers the tortured life of a true musical legend, Nina Simone. This film doesn't hold anything back as it highlights some of the most intimate details of her tumultuous life. From being a figurehead of the civil rights movement, to enduring physical spousal abuse, to mental health issues that went unchecked during a time where the field was severely lacking, to mismanagement of money and a declining lifestyle. This film covers it all in a stark and brutally honest way. Where most documentaries tend to edify the subject matter this film manages to restrain itself from positive or negative judgement for the most part. In the end we see a three dimensional human being that despite enduring many struggles had the constant and burning passion for music that gave her and the world so much joy.

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  Review by Graham Williamson ★★★½ 6

  How do you get to Carnegie Hall? It's a harder question than I expected.

  Liz Garbus's new documentary is a very conventional piece of craft, full of Ken Burns pans across old photographs and diary entries. But it's also a very focused work, blessedly free of Bono and Sting blabbering about how they've always been a big fan of whoever it is you're making a documentary about. What you get in place of this is a small cast of characters chosen on the basis of who knew Nina Simone best. Nobody, of course, can beat Nina's daughter Lisa Simone Kelly on that basis, and I enjoyed her interviews a lot. My favourite interviewee was Ambassador Shabazz, Malcolm X's daughter, whose…

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  Review by dunya. ★★★★

  Opening with a quote from another extremely influential black woman, Maya Angelou:

  "Miss Simone, you are idolized, even loved, by millions now. But what happened, Miss Simone?"

  This documentary does it's best to explain that. Still, you finish it wanting to know more.

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  Review by 👽hayley👽 ★★★½ 1

  i hope i die listening to nina simone

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  Review by Jonathan White ★★★½ 2

  Yes, it is confirmed that I live under a rock. A week or so past I watched one of this year’s doc nominees, Amy, and was flabbergasted by the talent of this tortured young performer. Ok, that I could have an excuse for – I’m old, and I don’t follow the pop like I used to. But there’s no excuse for this. I grew up in the 60’s, and this is the first time I’ve heard of Nina Simone.

  Miss Simone is a completely different tortured artist. As Lis Garbus’s picture paints, she’s tortured both physically and also by her inner demons. My father studied to be a concert pianist, and I know the talent and dedication needed; there’s only…