MISS SHARON JONES!


When you see Barbara Kopple listed as director of a documentary, you should know that it is going to be special. So it is with “Miss Sharon Jones!,” an intimate look at the career and life of a singer who many may not know about, but one whose personality and talent is indelibly etched by Kopple.

Jones is a bundle of performance energy rooted in soul music, and when she takes the stage with her band the Dap-Kings, the place is fired up with her hell-raising voice. The film concentrates on her getting up the courage to perform again after she has endured an absence as a result of being diagnosed three years ago with pancreatic cancer when she was 57.

We see the spunky Miss Jones fighting back against her illness. We see the intense nervousness she endures before going back on stage to conquer her fans. We are made to root for her both as a performer and as a human being with the hard luck of being stricken by a dreaded illness.

Whether one enjoys her brand of singing, one can be smitten by her talent and fervor. The film is strongest in capturing her performing and medical battle. But there is also a dip into the picture of the racial segregation in the South that existed in her formative years.

One gap in the film is little about her personal life, apart from the illness and involvement with her career. Romance? Love affairs? Kopple doesn’t tell us what may have existed along the way. But in other respects, Kopple has achieved great access to filming Jones and has put together the material in a way that invites us to get to know and admire this spitfire of talent and determination. A Starz Digital release. Reviewed July 29, 2016.




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