Amid speculation that Simmons might have pressured Winfrey to withdraw, she told The Times that she continued to stand by the women in the film but felt that their stories hadn’t been sufficiently “elevated,” and that the film lacked an appropriately broad context that took in the “debauchery” of the music business at the time. Winfrey’s concerns about the narrow focus and selective context don’t seem misplaced, but these strike me as strengths rather than shortcomings. “On the Record” is not a work of journalism. Most of the accusations have been reported on extensively in the last two years in various publications. What the film does is bring these accounts to living, breathing and moving life, taking us beyond the media cycles of allegation and denial to a survivor’s intimate confrontations with cultural pressures and trauma.

Source: New York Times May 27, 2020 23:48 UTC