Nina

Nina Simone was a huge public figure in the black civil rights movement and one of the most popular jazz musicians of all time. She remains to this day very influential and unique. This film managed to capture none of it. It decides to focus entirely on her romantic relationship with her assistant during the last years of her life and - even though it does address her mental health issues and her problems with showbiz - it briefly skims over all the good and important influence she had over culture and music. Zoe Saldana may have been able to pull off her demeanour while in daily life, however her 'on stage' performances were underwhelming. I don't have a problem with her doing her own singing while impersonation an actual person, because a voice-over would probably not have worked well, however, Zoe's auto-tuned performance failed to capture the spirituality, strength and powerful presence that Nina had. Obviously, no one can be as good a Nina as Nina was, but if I didn't know who Nina Simone was before this movie, I certainly would not have cared about her afterwards. Overall, I was not impressed by this film's portrayal of Nina's life, her music and her importance in history. If you want a better portrayal of Nina, watch What Happened, Miss Simone (her documentary) or listen to her actual music.

Why a 6? There are few performers that can captivate an audience. Nina Simone was one of those performer. It's a crime, no sin, the same cannot be said of her biography. The first biography I was not invested in the character. The treatment of Mississippi Burning best describes this movie. Power, hate and anger best describes the song. It is also one of Nina's iconic song, brushed over barely a mention. The best description of the movie: brushed over. Why the 6? I believed Zoe Saldana was incapable of portraying a powerful woman as Nina Simone; I was wrong. Is the movie worth watching for her performance? Sadly No. Nina deserved a better treatment of her life.

The high ratings must be from people unfamiliar with Nina Simone. The makeup looks like Saldana has bad skin. Saldana's acting is passable. But the film is just boring. Saldana's singing lacks the depth of Simone.

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.

So, I'll try to not include the controversy I heard about Star Trek's Zoe Saldana, playing the Infamous Nina Simone, although that's what made me interested in buying the ticket.

Overall, Saldana's performance was just OK. It's not the worse thing I've ever seen, it's not the best performance I've ever seen. It's not a milestone in her acting career, unlike her co-star David Oyelowo's magnificent turn as Doctor Martian Luther King Jr. in the movie, Selma. Mike Epps made an interesting cameo as Richard Pryor in the movie which left me something more than Saldana as Simone.

Nina is a focus on the last eight or so years of Simone's life, which was odd as Saldana (and the make up job they did on her) did not convince me she was a 70 year old woman. Mainly, it centers around the relationship Nina had with her new manager, Clifton Henderson.

It's another one of these films that tells us more about the type of personality the artist is rather than anything about the person's life. It's similar to Don Cheadle's take on Miles Davis in the film Miles Ahead, but that film had some magic in it that this movie does not.

Saldana and the film did an OK job letting us know the type of artist Nina Simone was, but you did not feel the passion behind it. I know it's near impossible to create a motion picture about Nina that would visually do what Simone could do with her musical talents, but I did not feel any effort towards it at all.

So overall, at the moment Saldana still has playing the most ionic woman in Sci-Fi on the top of her resume, while playing the greatest singer of all time will not even register. The make-up was fine and her voice was satisfying, but like I said I was not expected her to sound like Nina Simone, but this movie is not passionate like her music.