Nina feels like a movie made by people who fundamentally misunderstood Nina Simone. It conclusively proves that representation behind the camera is as important as representation on screen.

| Oct 14, 2017

This film had a great opportunity to take a once-in-a-lifetime story about a troubled, legendary singer, and add insight. Nina, in the most frustrating way, bungles that mission.

| Nov 7, 2016

If this is a greatest hits album, Nina picks the least-accessible songs and then puts them all in the wrong order.

| May 20, 2016

An insult to the legacy of the High Priestess of Soul, those looking for a richer exploration of the woman, artist, activist and legend, are best served elsewhere.

| Original Score: D | May 18, 2016

Never seems authentic or real, just a bizarrely staged re-creation.

| May 5, 2016

While Saldana gives her very best in trying to embody the essence of Miss Simone with equal support from co-star David Oyelowo, both are confined to a weak script and for Saldana, probably the worst makeup job she's had on the big screen.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 29, 2016

All in all, Nina is watchable in and of itself, but I can't recommend your paying full price for it, especially if you're a Nina Simone devotee.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 28, 2016

A 90-minute-long character assassination, transforming a music legend into a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

| Original Score: D- | Apr 27, 2016

Respectfully factual in its over-all contours but sensational and sentimental nonetheless, the movie reduces Simone's life to clichés about hope; it replaces the creative drive with the commercial one, the artist with the celebrity.

| Apr 25, 2016

Saldana does a fine job of delivering the lyrics -- a daunting task for any actress required to step into those vocals, but fans of Simone will be aching for the real deal.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2016

A Nina Simone novice seeing this picture would have no idea who this complex, magnificent artist was, or why she mattered.

| Apr 22, 2016

Zoe Saldana's woeful casting is just one of a myriad of reasons to despise Nina, as its plot and characterization fail to glean any insight into the iconic musician and Civil Rights activist.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 22, 2016

Why Mort, who wrote and directed the film, has chosen to focus on Simone's troubled 1990s period in France is anyone's guess.

| Apr 22, 2016

Nina teaches us an important lesson about waiting for a film to come out before criticizing it. For it is only then that we can know how truly heinous it is.

| Apr 22, 2016

The word on this Nina Simone biopic has been so toxic for so long - it was filmed in 2012 but only released now - I was really hoping to find something good in it. No luck.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 22, 2016

Sometimes-edgy biopic of iconic musician doesn't dig deep.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 22, 2016

Saldana's makeup and prosthetics can be rationalized to an extent; reducing Simone's achievements, turning her into a melodramatic stereotype, cannot.

| Apr 22, 2016

A listless, oddly constructed tale that does a poor job of capturing Simone's star quality or indomitable racial pride ...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2016

You'll see some durable makeup in "Nina." What you won't see is any justification why this film should exist.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Apr 22, 2016

This abysmal piece of s*** deserves everything that's coming to it and more.

| Apr 22, 2016