Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (2007)

Director: Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden

Critics' rating

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Anita O’Day lived the jazz life, for better or worse. Adored by jazz aficionados (she’s regularly ranked with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald), she achieved only limited fame in the wider world. Watching some of her amazing performances from the 1940s through the 1990s in this solid doc, you are likely to wonder why. (Was it her penchant for turning even the simplest songs into complex rhythmic riffs? Did she blow her big chances because of her 15-year heroin addiction?)

O’Day’s life story has enough twists to fill several docs. She sang with big bands in the 1940s but made the transition into jazz in the 1950s before her long (but astonishingly productive) heroin phase. Then she got famous in Japan and continued recording into her eighties. O’Day reveals that her tendency to focus on rhythmic and rapid-fire interpretations of songs is due in part to the fact that her uvula was sliced off in a botched tonsillectomy, leaving her with virtually no vibrato. She turned that weakness into an asset, making a space for herself in jazz singing.

We could have lived with a little less of Cavolina and McCrudden’s fondness for using graphic design elements (floating blocks of color) borrowed from Blue Note album covers to “liven up” the film, but Anita can’t be obscured, even by excessive graphics.

Author: Hank Sartin

Time Out Chicago Issue 189: October 9–15, 2008


  • Find Showtimes
  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Now playing

This film is playing at these theaters

Cast & crew

Director: Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden

Rated: NR

Duration: 91 mins

US Release: Aug 15 2008




Features

Turkey or gravy?

Turkey or gravy?

We've got some advice about family moviegoing for the holiday weekend.

Holiday gift guide

Instructions on how to get your own customized soda machine (and other, slightly more rational gifts for your film-loving friends).

Holiday film preview

Are you more interested in seeing the Daniel Craig movie, the Steven Soderbergh movie or the Freddy Rodriguez movie? Answer carefully.

Boyle's orders

The director of Slumdog Millionaire talks about the joys of filming on the cheap in India after having worked under Hollywood's thumb.

Time and again

Wong Kar-wai spruces up his underseen martial-arts epic, Ashes of Time.

Mergers and acquisitions

A new deal between the Underground Film Festival and IFP pays off.

Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema

The films we previewed offer very few reasons to kvetch.