Rent Back to Black (2024)

Excellent Biopic of Amy Winehouse - Back to Black review by PV

I really enjoyed this. The music is great and the performances.

When it was released it got mixed reviews, a lot from female reviewers who objected that Amy's life was seen via her relationship with various men. They clearly wanted a feminist role model heroine. But, as Amy says in this, she likes men. Some of those reviewers clearly don't.

Recently various biopics of famous tragic dead women have been made which manblame - all their troubles are the fault of men. A recent Marilyn Monroe TV drama series was just that - but it all seems fake to me. These women have issues no matter what. Blaming men for their demise is, in a word, sexist. Misandrist actually. A real agenda.

What I disliked about this film was the timeline which was unclear - as to when Amy got famous. It was a bit blurred.

But anyway, all in all a decent biopic so 4 stars.

A solid, searingly honest biopic with an incredible performance/singing from Marisa Abela - Back to Black review by TB

Amy Winehouse was a complete one-off: a searing talent which to me (as much as I am an atheist,) was practically God given. But she was also a woman whose significant personal troubles (relationships, addiction,) meant she was often both traduced & reduced to tabloid fodder, held up as an example of completely out of control self-destructive behaviour. Her death at the age of 27 was both shocking & unsurprising, her name joining the pantheon of geniuses whose talent was only matched by their seeming determination to destroy themselves.

A few years later, the family/record company commissioned Asif Kapadia to make a documentary of her life, which was an absolutely incredible & profoundly moving look at her rise from a precociously talented young girl to the all-conquering global superstar, then finally as the extremely unwell woman who was powerless against her demons.

But the documentary generated significant outrage from Winehouse's family, especially her father Mitch, understandably so seeing as he comes out of it extremely poorly. So we now have Back to Black, fully endorsed by the family, to tell Amy's story from her perspective, as well as looking at the origins of many of the songs from that album.

One thing which is important to dispel from the off is that this is film is in no way simply a vehicle to rehabilitate the Winehouse family's reputation after the documentary. I myself was concerned that this would be the case, but the filmmakers were extremely clear that the family had no creative control over the process.

I really, really enjoyed this film. And interestingly, I actually think that the documentary does it a favour: if you've seen it, a lot of the questions you may have had will have some kind of answer, but that also allows the film to put meat on the bones of the story. We see Amy at various points in her life, in a film which feels completely authentic. Her grandmother, Amy's biggest influence, is given plenty of time to show why she was so special to the singer growing up. Camden Town, where Amy lives & frequently made reference to, is also another major character in the film, including shooting in many of the places Amy actually spent time in, including the pubs she gigged in as a young talent.

But my biggest praise is towards not only Marisa Abela's mesmeric performance, but also how Amy is portrayed. In no way is this sanitised or muted for fear of alienating the viewer (unlike with Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.) Winehouse is shown as an extremely strong-minded & obstinate artist, as well as a highly volatile & sometimes violent woman. And what the movie does perfectly is show that not only was it highly likely that she had significant mental illness, but that she was in many ways trapped in a spiral of her unpredictable behaviour.

In many scenes, whilst there are these outbursts, there is also significant attention given to the aftermath, whether it is waking up on the floor after a violent seizure caused in part by drowning herself in alcohol, or breaking down & agreeing to go to rehab. And that is totally to the film's credit.

The only fault I can pick with this film is that we are never fully shown just why Amy became so besotted by Blake Fielder-Civil. As much as there are multiple scenes of the 2 of them falling in love, he was never anything more than a drug-taking lowlife who seemed to ride on the coattails of her success. And when a big part of the film is about her love for him, it does affect the film's quality.

But throughout all of it, Abela is incredible. She does all her own singing, as well as playing Winehouse with reverence & perfection. In a time of many biopics (Elvis, Freddie, Elton, Marley,) this performance really does stand out. And like the best biopics, at the end I just felt sad. I so wish that Amy had been able to get the help she needed, but her star was just too bright...