I’m a big Amy Winehouse fan, but I’ve grown tired of music biopics. We already had the great documentary “Amy.” That makes this uneven, exploitative story that absolves her disgusting boyfriend Blake, and equally disgusting dad, of exacerbating the mental issues Winehouse dealt with a bit worse. In fact, in this movie, they look like good guys (albeit one with a drug problem). Perhaps showing those two in a positive light was necessary to get the rights to the story. I didn’t dig deep enough to find out.
British director Sam Taylor-Johnson did a movie about another talent we lost too soon – John Lennon (the 2009 film “Nowhere Boy”). She also did the worst movie of 2015 (the year “Amy” came out) – Fifty Shades of Grey.
The problem is we all know the well-documented truth about her life, so why sugarcoat things? This is a singer with an incredible voice, magnetism, and a beehive that wouldn’t quit – and this was what we get?
Yet I was never bored watching it, and I kind of liked seeing her again. It’s like how I have fun seeing a good tribute act in a club. Hey, we’re not going to see Queen with Freddie Mercury, so I’ll have a blast with Queen Nation (I highly recommend them). Speaking of which, Rami Malek did a good job playing Mercury (hell, he won an Oscar), but he didn’t do the singing. This performance by Marisa Abela (from the HBO show “Industry”), who does an amazing job singing and acting, would be a shoe-in for an Academy Award if this were a better film.
Amy is shown early on listening to jazz, and singing, with her Jewish family. She’s especially close to her grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville).
She has success with her first album “Frank.” Disagreements with the folks at Island Records, leads her to take a break. She wants to live life (i.e. drink, party, and find a man), which leads her to a meet/cute (that’s actually kind of cute) with Blake (Jack O’Connell). He’s in a pub looking like a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
She gets a tattoo of his name and writes a hit album inspired by him. While he does coke and other drugs, she drinks more and more.
Amy’s dad Mitch (Eddie Marsan) hated the documentary that showed what a weasel he was. He must prefer how he’s portrayed here where he helps talk to the producers at Island Records, and helps Amy understand why they want her to do things a certain way. He is a shoulder to cry on when Amy has a problem. He offers her advice. He even gets on her for smoking pot. In real life, we all know he cared more about her fame and getting rich, then her well-being.
Blake looks pretty good for a crackhead. Also, in real life, he introduced her to hard drugs. In this, he just did drugs himself, and she was already an alcoholic. And HE is the one telling her she needs to drink less. Yeah, right. But what did he introduce her to? Apparently, the Shangri-Las (in what’s actually a cute scene, watching him lip-synch “Leader of the Pack”).
In music biopics, I always enjoy scenes with the artists in the studio (it’s one of the only good scenes in the Brian Wilson movie, watching Paul Dano as the musical genius, working on “Pet Sounds”). In this, we don’t get much of how Amy worked or the creative process involved.
Instead we get cliches and fictionalized stories about how things really went down.
Now, 87% of all movies today have vomit scenes. It made a bit more sense here, as she had an eating disorder and a drinking problem.
Again, so much about this film bugged me, but I still enjoyed watching it. We hear a lot of her great songs, along with a terrific score by Nick Cave (and a song he dedicated to Amy at the closing credits). We’re also treated to some Thelonious Monk, Gershwin, Tony Bennet, Billie Holiday (those last two to be expected), and it was a pleasant surprise hearing Lauren Hill and The Specials “Ghost Town.”
2 ½ stars out of 5.