Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

doughk5 What a great forgotten talent ...the honesty of her life she presents should be a guide post to young talent and celebrities today. Her wit and wisdom...does not take the edge off what she did and how she did .A true breath of fresh air from truly one of the greats. To be truthful in regards to addiction ... Both hers and many of the Jazz greats that were her contemporaries, was insightful and sincere...with her brand of brashness that i am sure was her trademark. To have that long of a career , to play with most of the greatest in Jazz and to survive..is truly indicative of her stamina and stick to it-ness, that keeps her alive in the hearts of those that knew her and discovered her courtesy of this documentary. Anita's look and rebel attitude strikes familiar ....Mylie Cyrus.

jjnxn-1 Fascinating documentary on a great jazz singer who should be more well known. It was a tough life for Anita but the pluck which saw her through many hard times, some admittedly of her own making, is showcased front and center by reminiscences from the lady herself and backed by the people who either knew her when or admire her now. The documentary gives a sense of what kind of life was lived on the road by musicians when communities were scattered and touring was truly done in beat-up old buses and the sense of rootlessness that engendered. Some wonderful performances are highlighted and some terrific tales told of a certain kind of entertainment that is hard to find today.

julian kennedy Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer: 6 out of 10: I had no idea who Anita O'Day was when I rented this film. I like Jazz well enough and enjoy having it as background music, but I am hardly what one describes as an aficionado.Since viewing this film, I have watched the wonderful documentary "Jazz on a Summer's Day" and have downloaded some fine Anita O'Day jazz albums.Therefore, from one point of view, the documentary is a stunning success. It got me interested enough in its subject, for me to take actions after viewing.The film however suffers from uneven interviews and presentation. Film quality is all over the map and some of O'Day's last interviews were clearly filmed by folks unfamiliar with the workings of a motion picture camera.Even more disappointing is the poor sound quality of many of the musical tracks and the lack of sampling from her albums.You know if you have a 16-year heroin addiction and four failed marriages and you still manage to live until 87 despite grinding poverty and botched healthcare, you are the definition one tough bird. Unfortunately that also signifies most of your contemporaries are long dead. Many of the war stories as a result, tend to be second hand at best.The film does contain one wonderful non-musical highlight. In a mid-seventies interview a young Bryant Gumbel states to O'Day "Your life story involves rape, failed relationships, drugs, and multiple abortions". O'Day's that is just they way it went down response is priceless.Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer is a decent film but I would recommend renting Jazz on a Summer's Day first. That concert seems to capture the magic better than anything else I have seen.

mgconlan-1 This is a marvelous film, a worthy tribute to one of the giants of jazz. I was a bit worried at the gimmicky opening -- in which a clip of Anita O'Day was subjected to bizarre color patterns, mirror images and re-editing -- but as the film went on it settled into a conventional but appealing music-documentary groove with O'Day's interviews (some archival, some done especially for this film) providing commentary and context to her career. Filmmakers Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden deserve credit for presenting O'Day's performances, if not as complete songs start-to-finish, at least in long enough clips so you could appreciate her (all too many music documentarians just give us a few seconds here and there, or have people talking over the clips). Though this film is aimed mostly at O'Day's fans, "newbies" can watch it and at least get an idea of what made her so great.One aspect of the film that fascinated me was O'Day's comment that in order to be a great jazz musician you had to live the "jazz life." I can think of quite a few people on her level of talent -- Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie -- who had long and prosperous careers by avoiding substance abuse and the other pitfalls of the so-called "jazz life." The only part of the movie that really rubbed me the wrong way, though, was the interview clip with the late Leonard Feather (with which the filmmakers seemed to agree) in which he said that O'Day was the only white woman jazz singer he regarded as the artistic equal of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan. What about June Christy, Chris Connor, Peggy Lee or -- in the generation just before O'Day's -- Mildred Bailey (an obvious influence on O'Day's style) and the Boswell Sisters?