Back To Black
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Cast: Marisa Abela, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville
3.5/5
In theatres on 12 April 2024
In July of 2011 we lost one of the greatest voices of our generation to alcohol poisoning.
The tumultuous life of Amy Winehouse came to an abrupt end when she was just 27 years of age seeing her join an elite class of artists to die at this stage of life. This film provides a well-composed snapshot of her life, taking us back to how her first album Frank (2003) came to be and the sordid story of an intoxicated and poisonous love that birthed her greatest opus, Back To Black (2006)
We are shown a young woman in London who loves to go out, lose herself in the arts and is not impartial to casual moments enjoyed in between the sheets. This portrait of a loveable hedonist unfurls at a nice tempo. At first, you will be trying to reconcile how Amy looked in real life and how the actress Marisa Abela has been made to look like this powerhouse singer and composer.
Amy’s appearance was as unique as her voice and some of her features were strong and definitive. Recapturing that exactly was always going to be a tall order. They use certain angles to capture Marisa for the most part. She looks good in profile, and from low and slightly elevated shots, she starts to look like Amy as the movie progresses. The impressive part however lies in Marisa’s rendering of the vocal offering.
Read more | Denzel Washington to Equalize for a third time alongside Antoine Fuqua in the franchise finale
Amy Winehouse has the kind of voice you could pick out in a lineup, which makes it hard to replicate, so you will be able to detect that a lot of work went into making Marisa sound as close to Amy as they could, and it actually works. The way Amy ends her notes was something they got down well but on occasion, there are a few sour notes that Amy would never have let out but what are you gonna do?
Amy is hellbent on making her music mean something, the fame and money are superfluous to her as she wrangles with her first record deal and the pressures of label execs like the famed and controversial Simon Fuller attempting to build her career in the mould of a Spice Girl. Amy much rather prefers emulating Sarah Vaughn and Lauryn Hill.
The close connection she has with her father played by the very much in use Eddie Marsan comes across as being close to what reports about their connection have said. She is also very close with her grandmother who she will eventually be buried next to.
Believing Blake or bashing him?
Blake Fielder-Civil is the murky muse for the album Back To Black which had such hits as You Know I'm No Good, Rehab, Love is a Losing Game, Me & Mr Jones and Valerie. She meets a charming man in a pub-one of her favourite hangouts-and she pursues him as she is completely smitten. They fall for each other and soon thereafter a toxic co-dependence develops involving alcohol abuse, physical abuse, self-harm and ultimately heartbreak which sends Amy into a tailspin.
She uses her gift to even the keel and begins to work on her seminal sophomore. The scene in which she records the heartbroken ballad, Back To Black leaves a thick stillness hanging over the theatre as the audience quietly contemplates the potency of what they have just witnessed. It is similar to the depiction shown in the incredibly well-constructed documentary about this singer called Amy (2015).
The actual recording of this song was a bit more gut-wrenching than the cinematic portrayal but perhaps they wanted to present something different.
Amy’s label had been tinkering with her on stage persona and ways to break into the American and global market which her first album only did after the release of Back To Black. It is painful to watch how much that album cost her in terms of emotional expenditure. She was the kind of artist who aimed to have things happen to her to fuel her art which is always dangerous but bravely honest.
Read more | REVIEW | My first time at Cape Town Met and why it’s worth attending
Back To Black amasses her genuine superstardom along with five Grammy wins and with it comes the overbearing attention of the media. Amy is hounded by the paparazzi and the pressures of this new life along with her on-and-off connection to Blake which drives her to drink. Blake eventually leaves her as the public begins to blame him for the state Amy is in, but you can make your own mind up about that.
This film is already at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes even before its release. It is not the greatest biopic of a legendary recording artist, but it isn’t as sloppy as that Bob Marley film from earlier this year. It does have a rewatchable feel to it but be warned, this is mood-altering cinema, and you will leave feeling both consumed by the magic of her music and disturbed that such a talent was snuffed the way it was.
