Veteran documentarian Barbara Kopple spends a year with R&B singer Sharon Jones as she works to complete an album and beat cancer. Two big concerns, one fantastically strong personality. Performed with verve but without going beyond the intimacy of the moment and Jones’ concerns beyond cancer, “Miss Sharon Jones!” is a tingle of what a fine and fierce figure could have been onscreen. Still, her energy is a rebuke to the easily defeated. 93m. (Ray Pride)
“Miss Sharon Jones!” opens Friday, September 2 at Siskel.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
