Sasha Weiss

Well, there's a great moment in the film where he's singing the beautiful ones. You can find performances like this one online. And, you know, one of the refrains is... Do you want him or do you want me? Because I want you. It's the song of yearning. And he is just giving a wild performance of a kind of screaming and keening and, you know, falling. And...

When I heard his like sort of yelps and his cries, I always thought it was about sexuality, you know, and sexual yearning, romantic yearning. But I was able to hear it in a different way. And partly because one of his bandmates is telling me, I hear her voice on the film telling me, this was the central problem of his life, this problem of abandonment. Do you want me?

When I heard his like sort of yelps and his cries, I always thought it was about sexuality, you know, and sexual yearning, romantic yearning. But I was able to hear it in a different way. And partly because one of his bandmates is telling me, I hear her voice on the film telling me, this was the central problem of his life, this problem of abandonment. Do you want me?

And you could hear the pure pain in it. And then suddenly Prince's screaming feels also like grief. It's not just sexuality. It's also grief. It's also pain. And it's authentic. And I understand that the song contains all of it. So it's this richness. And you sort of understand what's feeding the performance and that when he's there on stage, like, yes, he's...

And you could hear the pure pain in it. And then suddenly Prince's screaming feels also like grief. It's not just sexuality. It's also grief. It's also pain. And it's authentic. And I understand that the song contains all of it. So it's this richness. And you sort of understand what's feeding the performance and that when he's there on stage, like, yes, he's...

I'm sure aware of what he's doing and in control of what he's doing, but he's also possessed and kind of channeling all of this complexity through his body and through his voice. And I just hear his music completely differently now. The layers are so much deeper.

I'm sure aware of what he's doing and in control of what he's doing, but he's also possessed and kind of channeling all of this complexity through his body and through his voice. And I just hear his music completely differently now. The layers are so much deeper.

So the movie is an answer to a cultural question that I think has been vexing us for a decade or more, which is what do we do with great artists who are extremely flawed human beings? And the answer that the movie offers is that we basically sit with their contradictions, right? And Prince was, on the one hand, a genius, an original of a generation, an original of a century.

So the movie is an answer to a cultural question that I think has been vexing us for a decade or more, which is what do we do with great artists who are extremely flawed human beings? And the answer that the movie offers is that we basically sit with their contradictions, right? And Prince was, on the one hand, a genius, an original of a generation, an original of a century.

I mean, he's a Mozart of American pop. And with a mind that was teeming with music and ideas, he was also... controlling he could be abusive towards his lovers he was deeply vulnerable he was a person who crossed boundaries and contained multiplicities and edelman is asking us to sit with that for nine hours

I mean, he's a Mozart of American pop. And with a mind that was teeming with music and ideas, he was also... controlling he could be abusive towards his lovers he was deeply vulnerable he was a person who crossed boundaries and contained multiplicities and edelman is asking us to sit with that for nine hours

and take it all in and allow ourselves to pity him sometimes, allow ourselves to adore him and worship him, and allow ourselves to criticize him and to sit with the wild brew of who Prince was. And also to make the argument that knowing this enriches our understanding of the art he made. It deepens our understanding of the art he made.

and take it all in and allow ourselves to pity him sometimes, allow ourselves to adore him and worship him, and allow ourselves to criticize him and to sit with the wild brew of who Prince was. And also to make the argument that knowing this enriches our understanding of the art he made. It deepens our understanding of the art he made.

It deepens our love of it because we know where it comes from or we know something about where it comes from and how he transforms the raw material of his selfhood into something transcendent.

It deepens our love of it because we know where it comes from or we know something about where it comes from and how he transforms the raw material of his selfhood into something transcendent.

So, as part of the original agreement that Netflix struck with the Prince estate for access to the vault, the estate was going to have an opportunity to review the film for factual accuracy.

So, as part of the original agreement that Netflix struck with the Prince estate for access to the vault, the estate was going to have an opportunity to review the film for factual accuracy.

Ezra Edelman welcomed this. He's a journalist. Nobody wants to get anything wrong. Nobody wants to get anything wrong. You can review the film for factual error. Now, in the years that Ezra spent working on the film, there were these ongoing complicated legal battles over Prince's estate, in part because Prince left no will. So the estate changed hands.

Ezra Edelman welcomed this. He's a journalist. Nobody wants to get anything wrong. Nobody wants to get anything wrong. You can review the film for factual error. Now, in the years that Ezra spent working on the film, there were these ongoing complicated legal battles over Prince's estate, in part because Prince left no will. So the estate changed hands.

It changes from being overseen by a bank and courts in Minnesota to now being overseen by a lawyer who used to work for Prince in the 90s, members of his family, and a music company. And the new people in charge watch the film. And they submit this list that's 17 pages long with all kinds of quibbles and queries and objections. almost none of which have to do with facts.