Today I am not writing about the usual reviews on one of those big Hollywood blockbusters. Instead I am talking about Amy, Asif Kapadia’s documentary about Amy Winehouse, the late pop diva, and the girl behind the name.
The film kicks off with a 1998 home movie of a 14-year-old Winehouse, singing at a birthday party for one of her close friends and moves on from this point depicting the early years of her life, her love for music and how she was first introduced into the world as a professional musician.
You then join Amy on the journey from making her breakthrough album Frank to the making of her second and final Album, the critically acclaimed Back to Black. Getting an up close and personal look into her genius as a singer and songwriter as well as her personal relationships with the men in her life and her love/hate relationship with alcohol and drug abuse – all of which served as creative fuel for her music.
Kapadia uses plenty of never-seen-before footage, home videos, talk show interviews as well as news footage to weave together the pieces of Winehouse’s life that have been immortalized on film to tell what is a truly raw, honest and heartbreaking story about the life and loss of one of music’s greatest.
I have to admit that this movie was hard to watch for me. It was truly disheartening to see this amazing talent grow and rise to euphoric heights and to see it all get thrown away, while at the same time watching this sincere and vulnerable suol get used and have the last bits of her life drained out of her.
There have been some outrage from certain family members about the movie and how negatively it portrays their role in Winehouses’s life, and the reality is that many of them do not come across in a good light at all – and it’s hard not to form a negative personal opinion about them. There was also just moments where you will probably just find yourself wishing you could have been there to talk some sense to the Rehab singer and help her turn things around. The sad truth is that nobody did, and as a result the world lost a true star.
And the music of Winehouse makes the movie that much harder to watch, as I found myself just sitting in awe of the power and impact that her voice had and still has to this day.
This movie is a much watch for fans of Winehouse although it’s such a captivating story that anyone will get caught up in the life and tragic demise of the trouble singer.
Amy is available on DVD now.
Last Updated: February 1, 2016
|
|
|
|---|---|
