A wholly satisfying portrait of a formidable talent.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2024

The alternately revolutionary and dispiriting saga of a combative, unapologetic and astoundingly gifted soul singer.

| Dec 29, 2021

A blazingly intelligent, nuanced and insightful dive into the life of the woman born Eunice Waymon and her journey into gospel, classical, jazz and blues.

| Dec 17, 2021

A complex look at the soul icon and how activism and violence shaped her sound...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 22, 2021

What Happened, Miss Simone? is a deep dive into the catalogue, but the search is well worth it.

| Mar 9, 2021

Director Liz Garbus does a beautiful job of packing a complex life into the film - from Simone's childhood as Eunice Waymon in the Jim Crow South through to her later years of self-exile in Liberia and France.

| Jan 28, 2021

Intense docu on iconic musician; graphic talk of abuse.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2020

I wish the film included even more of [Nina] Simone's music. The interviews are all first-rate and thorough, even as the interviewees, like [Andrew] Stroud and [Al] Schackman, seem to have opposing viewpoints.

| Mar 8, 2019

With this film, Nina Simone - the woman and the artist - finally gets the veneration she so richly deserves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 7, 2018

Structurally and content-wise it's near perfect: the film cleverly opens on a thematising visual anecdote before taking us back to the beginning of Simone's life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 10, 2018

I had some problems with What Happened, Miss Simone? but still found it worthwhile, mainly due to the inclusion of rare archival footage that I had never seen before.

| Aug 24, 2018

What Miss Simone does have going for it is its unique access to extremely rare material, some of it never seen publicly before.

| Jul 24, 2018

Garbus's documentary is a celebration of Simone's legacy, but it also takes a reasonably unflinching approach to her faults... the real joy here is the music, and the archival footage of Simone doing what she did best: singing, playing piano, performing.

| Jul 24, 2018

We may now have jarring insights into the mother, the activist and the tortured soul at the root of Simone's career, but it's the legendary songstress who ultimately shines through.

| Original Score: B | Oct 28, 2017

Though it is doubtful that [Nina] Simone, were she still alive, would be much impressed with [Kanye] West's music - she once said that she didn't like rap at 'all' - she might recognise in him a fellow spirit.

| Sep 12, 2017

... , WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? removes the mystery behind her story that is as fascinating today as ever.

| Original Score: A | Sep 1, 2017

Much as Amy, Asif Kapadia's Oscar-nominated documentary does for Amy Winehouse, it ensures that [Nina] Simone's legacy, both as a woman and an artist, won't be soon forgotten.

| Aug 16, 2017

What Happened, Miss Simone? gives Simone's personal struggles and her role in the political discourse get their due, though we never really find out quite what happened?

| Aug 14, 2017

It's an astounding work that is both jarring and unapologetic in its examination of a musical genius.

| Apr 12, 2017

A biographical sketch so scintillating and authoritative that one barely registers how stylistically generic it is.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 10, 2016