Variety: Nina Simone lived many lives in her 70 years on the planet, and for a filmmaker looking to dramatize the iconic singer-pianist’s story on screen, the potential entry points are almost endless. Considering the range of possibilities, and the continuing relevance of Simone’s music in an era of renewed racial tensions, “Nina’s” decision to frame her story through a “Sunset Blvd.”-style narrative is truly a head-scratcher. Focusing on Simone’s late-life relationship with a younger nurse-turned-manager provides a perilously shaky foundation from which to consider her legacy, and that’s just the first of many major miscalculations made by writer-director Cynthia Mort’s long-gestating biopic, which meanders into theaters and VOD this month after years of pitched controversy. Interest in Simone will be evergreen as long as recorded music exists, but arriving just a year after Liz Garbus’ Oscar-nominated doc “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” superior competition and bad buzz should cast an indigo mood over the film’s reception.
The Hollywood Reporter
Bibiana Novakova plays the 12-year-old title character in this divorce drama from Slovak documentarian-turned-fiction director Juraj Lehotsky ('Miracle').
AVClub: Controversy has plagued the Nina Simone biopic Nina from the moment that its existence was formally announced. Most of the heat has been focused on the decision to cast Zoe Saldana, who’s relatively light-skinned (her parents hail from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic), as the legendary singer, whose appearance was more typically African. Efforts have been made to correct the disparity—Saldana’s skin has been darkened for the movie via makeup, and she wears a prosthetic nose—but the extent to which this constitutes a form of blackface, even though Saldana is herself black, has been vigorously debated. However valid such complaints may be, however, they seem almost comical when weighed against the numerous other bizarre decisions made by writer-director Cynthia Mort in bringing Simone’s life to the screen. Nina has been so thoroughly misconceived, on virtually every level, that the only less interesting portrait imaginable would be one that takes place entirely when Nina Simone was in utero.
Deadline: It might as well be spring for RLJ Entertainment, as the company announced today that it has acquired all North American rights to Nina, the upcoming biopic about the life of legendary singer-songwriter and civil rights activist Nina Simone. The film will be released in theaters December 2015 under the RLJ Entertainment brand.
