Nina Simone will always be a legend. She was obviously a gifted jazz/blues singer. And she was certainly an activist from the mid ’60s to mid ’70s. But “survivor”? She lived until she was 70, but her life became more and more of a disaster zone from 1970 on. Survivors are people who soldier on through great adversity that has rained down upon them. But Liz Garbus‘ What Happened, Miss Simone? makes a convincing case that Simone was her own worst enemy. Pretty much all of her adversity was self-created. A more honest poster for Nina (RLJ, 4.22) would read “Singer. Activist. Legend. Piece of Work.”

From my 1.22.15 review: “I also found Simone herself a bit of a hurdle. Her lack of respect and reverence for her extraordinary singing gifts as well as a general indifference to the basics of maintaining a healthy career is perplexing and even alienating. Maybe it’s me but it’s hard to warm up to, much less feel a kinship with, haughty aloofness, a hair-trigger temperament and self-destructive behavior.”