Back To Black

The life of Amy Winehouse has enough depth to fill a TV series. From her sheer talent, pioneering style and success based on songs that felt like pieces of her soul, to the London culture of the noughties and press and public scrutiny that hounded her until her untimely death.

The negative reviews and criticism of the biopic Back To Black have brought back a little reminder of that horrible time in the media and brings to light questions of how much things have really changed.

This is a perfectly serviceable biopic about a true icon of our time and the level of press vitriol and negative reviews from newspapers feels strange, especially when the far inferior Bob Marley biopic from last month got away with higher critic scores.

Sure, it isn’t a perfect movie and feels a little incomplete. Sure, it can feel a little bit ‘soap opera’ and plays some parts safe. It’s a tad disjointed and inconsistent and the timeline and choice of songs for various scenes is hit and miss.

However, it somewhat encapsulates some of the personality of Amy. A daunting role to play as a newcomer, Marisa Abela is excellent here and goes all in on the performance. Training to get her voice sounding as close to Amy's as possible, the musical scenes are universally great and there are certain moments where you catch her in profile and it’s almost like she’s really there back onscreen.

The acting is strong across the board and the film also is broadly unbiased in its portrayals of the main figures in Amy’s life. It is lacking in scenes with her friends (both childhood and famous) but in a two hour film there had to be some omissions. It feels like it moves through events fairly rapidly and leaves you wanting more but I think that’s both a criticism and a compliment in a way.

If you’ve ever been moved by an Amy Winehouse song, there’s a strong chance that you’ll be moved by at least a few moments of this film. Likewise, as a depiction of a time that can often feel like eons ago but actually has a lot of modern parallels, this is a thought-provoking film that could bring some very relevant issues back to people’s consciousness.

As a tribute to a legend, it isn’t perfect but it highlights just how much the world could do with Amy Winehouse right now and will hopefully lead more to watch Asif Kapadia’s brilliant Amy documentary from 2015.

Undeserving of the seemingly random hate, enjoyable, lively, funny, British, flawed, vibrant, polarising and built to attract a crowd (and differing opinions thereafter) – much like Amy herself.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️