Nina

Contrary to the last review, this movie was terrific! It showed Miss Simone's difficulties in life without excusing them, moving back and forth to explain why she was behaving a certain way. It showed the history of how she got to those feelings and actions. And then it showed her glory, which was her music. Miss Saldana was incredibly brave to take on the music of an icon. And, she did quite well. Her emotions while singing and the way she used her voice were wonderful. Anyone knowing this music would understand why she performed this way. Taking on the life of a legend is very difficult, but this crew did a great job. Kudos to all!

Because, many were personally involved in Miss Simone's life, it is easy to understand their annoyance; however, as a person that appreciates Miss Simone's music, I put her on her own pedestal but; I must, in the other hand, contemplate, in total impartiality of judgment, Miss Zaldana's performance, her singing was extraordinary and deserves to be valued independently. There is no comparison possible, for they are both different performers, and as such, must be valued separately. Perhaps, in relation to the portrayal of the character, there were marked unsubstantiated facts, this belongs to the screenwriters and playwrights or whoever. One must be fair and judge the acting and the singing of the artists.

I feel like there was so much about Nina that was left to be told that they didn't tell us. I think not having her family involved was a mistake because it clearly shows in the depth of the story telling in this. This just failed on all fronts.

Who can stomach a film where we see modern day black face.... this movie is disrespectful and insulting to the legacy of Ms. Nina Simone... There were plenty of choices for this role and Zoe Saldana was absolutely not it... which is why Nina Simone's real life story is Inspiring, this movie however needs to be flushed down the toilet as it is crap....

I watched this film with a little bit of hesitation given the controversy given the casting of Saldana, but I do not want to make too much comment on that as I think at this point it is evident that it was an inappropriate choice. The black-face aside... it was a very confusing choice, given that the film focuses mainly on the last decade or so of Nina Simone's life and neither Saldana nor the makeup applied to her were convincing as a sixty or seventy year old woman. The film also had a very poor screenplay, and I took issue with it's treatment of Nina Simone as a woman with mental illness, it really lacked subtlety and relied very heavily on clichéd ideas about mental illness which I don't think reflect Nina Simone as a person. In fact, I think the entire film missed the mark in capturing the essence of Nina Simone. And, finally, and by far the most disappointing, the music! Well... the music was OK, whoever the band were did a decent job. But Saldana's strained singing was terrible. The movie was boring at best, and offensive at worst. It was a horrible disappointment.

A very touching presentation on the last eight years of Nina Simone's creative but turbulent life. We learn about her past through a few flashbacks and her dialog. Zoe Saldana gives a fine interpretation of Nina Simone the person and her climb into a successful popular singer and slow frustrating slide back into near obscurity. Everything in this movie may not be exactly true but then the movie doesn't tell us everything about Nina Simone's past either. Director/writer: Cynthia Mort wants to show us Nina as a creative spirit caught in a black woman's body at a time when being black, female, talented, and beautiful may have opened a few doors but the struggle to bring beauty and soul freely into this society was full of road blocks, speed bumps, and potholes. Zoe Saldana being beautiful herself brings a touching and emotional Nina to life. Nina struggled with substance abuse problems and spells of mental illness. Her need to sing is brought to the surface here and Zoe becomes Nina and the spirit of Nina shines. This is a fine and wonderful film.

Nina Yet another film of a famous person that in reality is just an excuse to show off mental illness. In this case the bipolar condition of Nina Simone. The film assumes that the viewer already is familiar with her life. I wasn't. I only knew her by having heard a couple of her songs. The start of the film rushes ahead through her life to the very end of her life. But it doesn't start at the end and show flash backs. Well... sort of. It was mostly just a confusing mess and I had no clue what her career was like up to the end (where the film begins). The first concert she does is in a small bar. So as a viewer I'm like, OK, so this is the kind of concerts she had. And then I'm told she is one of the most famous singers. OK, so why is she in a small bar performing if she is so famous? And then somebody says that she should be in a huge concert hall, and not in a small bar. And I'm like, yes, so why isn't she? Please tell me, the viewer. No information. The film revolves around her (non-romantic) relationship with her nurse/assistant/manager. This is uninteresting. It never goes anywhere and there's very little tension. I suspect it's just badly acted. David Oyelowo plays the assistant. I had never heard of him. So I looked him up. He has a long career of so-so stuff. So he doesn't seem particularly talented. He seems to be established as a middling talent. So it's an odd casting. It seems to me like he just didn't have what it took to make this role work. Zoe Saldana plays Nina Simone. This is also not particularly interesting. But I don't think it's the acting that's the problem this time. I suspect the problem here is the script. A string of scenes showing a crazy person doing crazy things is not interesting. This is not a comedy. The craziness has to be coupled with her being sensible sometimes. There has to be some sort of balance. Nina Simone in this film goes from being disturbingly weird to being bouncing-off-the-walls-in-a-padded-cell- crazy. She's impossible to like. But she's famous for being a musical genius. She created amazing music and trail-blazed against all odds and conquered the world. This is not shown in this film. Nina Simone in this film is just nuts with no redeeming qualities. It's the stuff that made her famous that I'm interested in. This film provides none of it. They use the "Angry Black Woman" trope to it's fullest extent. Sure, Nina Simone does have ample reason to be angry. But this character seems utterly consumed by it. It's like she has nothing else going for her in her life. It would be nice with a film about a historical black person that doesn't focus on how much a victim he or she is. I'm not saying that black people historically haven't suffered. What I'm saying is that, by looking at the movies produced focusing on black people, black history seems to be defined by being a victim and nothing else. I'm starting to find this tedious. And in this film it's especially obvious, since her talents are so down-played. It's all about Nina, the crazy victim. I learned almost nothing about Nina Simone's music career.