Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Dreadfully Boring

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

If you have Netflix streaming, you really should see this fascinating documentary!! Though I lived through the 50s and 60s, I don't remember Nina Simone (born in 1933 in North Carolina as Eunice Waymon) except in a very obscure way: an expatriated American icon of some sort. Yet, she had unbelievable talents that broke all boundaries of instrumental and vocal performing. From childhood, she was trained in classical piano and was ready to become the first Black Woman to perform in Carnegie Hall. However, due to her life circumstances, she became something else. She became someone with totally unique abilities—abilities and feelings that transcended all types of music, poetry, and social activism. Yet, she had a very tragic life that is a story in itself.I have never seen a documentary that so perfectly captures a life of a very complicated person as well as this one did!! What's equally amazing is that there were so many video clips available (from so many different venues and over so much time) to use in putting this story personal story together. How does one talk about Nina Simone and her life? How do you classify her music or performing skills? Is it classical piano—gospel—jazz—soul— folk—social activism —poetry—or what? She wrote many songs that only she could written: she was the first black American to really express, in music, what so many people could only express in words (Malcolm X, James Baldwin), plays (Lorraine Hansberry) or poetry (Langston Hughes). And--as a black WOMAN--she expressed the anger that black men could not hope to at the time as in "Mississippi Goddam."Her songs are also about freedom as well as her search to find her black identity as in "To be Young Gifted and Black" (inspired by Loranie Hansberry's play).I'm convinced that the only way—or at least the best way--to BEGIN to understand Nina Simone is through this great documentary that follows her life from her childhood to death in the south of France!! Both her daughter and her former husband are narrators of the documentary, which gives us even more insight into her struggles.

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?"

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 3.6/5 stars"What Happened, Miss Simone?" is an often electric, mostly pulsating, well-presented, heartfelt, but at times, too simplistic, unchallenging, and hurried documentary on a great singer's and enigmatic showperson's troubled and complex life. On stage Nina Simone was known for her utterly free, uninhibited musical expression, which enthralled audiences and attracted lifelong fans. But amid the violent, haunting, and senseless day-to-day tribulations of the civil rights era in 1960s America, Simone struggled to reconcile her artistic identity and ambition with her devotion to a movement. Culled from hours of autobiographical tapes and video logs, this documentary unveils the unmitigated ego of a brilliant artist and the absurdities of her life and time.The film overreaches in casting Nina Simone as a standard-bearer against racism and sexism, but, at the same time, it's filled with mesmerizing clips from throughout her performing career as well as numerous interviews of the artist and those closest to her, both through audio and on film. Director Liz Garbus is not just satisfied with recounting a biography; instead she presents to us a very painful journey through the career and motives of an ambivalent woman whose anger always exploded on stage, usually leaving a lump in the audience's throat and rapture in its eyes. Nevertheless, this is an intimate examination of the tragic life of the High Priestess of Soul. It may not answer the burning question: "What Happened, Miss Simone?", but it does tell us why the question must be asked and will be asked for a very long time.

The telling of Nina's story through the words of her family and old footage from her as well is truly moving and unsettling. I felt the closing in of the events that lead to her fame, fall, and fatality. It seems as if everyone was affected by the power of her illness which was fueled by the times. I am not sure if one accelerated the other. Growing up in the south and traveling all over the world does something to you. You become enlightened and the junk that was going on in the US over race was ludicrous and enraging. I am not sure if I could deal with that back then either. Nina was truly ahead of her time but got stuck in time due to the violence of those times. I love the way she expressed her disdain for the instrument of her fame and I also loved the attitude she had about her own voice. I grew up listening to this strange voice and at first I could not figure out if it was a man or woman until further into the album. This documentary is a timely tribute to the singer and it also allowed us to see what she was going through and why she fell off the face of the earth for a while. I look at her from a different pair of eyes now and I am grateful to know her story.