‘Back to Black’ REVIEW: I loved it (I mean the album)
‘Back to Black’ REVIEW: I loved it (I mean the album)
Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black | Taken from Official Teaser
How much do you love Amy Winehouse? Making my way to the theater was the first time I had a proper listen of her rightly acclaimed second album, Back to Black. Its brisk 35-minute runtime melds her velvet smooth vocals and soulful production with very frank (forgive the pun) lyrics on her addiction and romantic woes.
The pop landscape of its time saw women castigated for having the artistic edge that also yielded the commercial hits required of them. Amy’s retro-leaning sound and ultra-modern persona were a risk that her label acclimated to with difficulty. They’d be proven wrong in three years’ time (not an eternity in album cycles) with Back to Black’s success in 2006.
If you don’t know her impact on music, you’d at least be aware of her musical descendants. Whether it’s the visible success of Adele’s intimate musicianship, Lady Gaga breaking through with an unconventional image not unlike Amy, or even Lana del Rey’s own retro-modern sonic fusion.
Abela as Amy Winehouse and Lesley Manville as Cynthia in Back to Black | Taken from Official Teaser
None of that matters for Back to Black, the film. Its first two scenes tell you all you need to know about what kind of perspective this film employs. In the first, her voice intones, “I want people to hear my voice and just forget their troubles for five minutes. I wanna be remembered for just being me,” while running ecstatically.
When the film later answers what brought her running on, it becomes telling of what the film understands as the center of Amy’s difficult artistic process. As you ponder Amy’s life and artistry in the film, you get the sense that such a distinctive artist shouldn’t have been fobbed with such a formulaic retelling of her life.
After that intro, Amy looks through a memory box of photos while conversing with her grandmother, Cynthia. It’s clear from the dialogue that it’s only meant to check off some memories and musical influences before Amy launches into a duet of “Fly Me to the Moon” with her father.
This kind of enumeration happens again later, when Amy flirts with Blake Fielder-Civil, her Back to Black muse who would become her husband. Lesley Manville endears as Cynthia, as does Eddie Marsan as Amy’s father, Mitch. Jack O’Connell plays Blake charmingly. However, the film is content with using him as an extended metaphor for toxic relationships and substance abuse.
Abela as Amy Winehouse tearing up as she records a song | Taken from Official Teaser
Marisa Abela, of course, is the film’s star and only reason for being worth a shot. Her impression of Amy Winehouse is the kind of commendable effort that would better warrant a humorous Drunk History retelling full of wit than a feature-length retelling of Amy's life. She does her own singing here. I’m inclined to believe it’s mostly true.
Did they sprinkle in Amy’s voice at parts? I haven’t been a long-enough fan to notice. What I can see is that Abela strains to sing as Amy whereas Amy never had to force her voice out of her. I think that difference is palpable.
Abela as Amy Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Blake in Back to Black | Taken from Official Teaser
It’s the early romantic scenes between O’Connell and Abela that make you think that this movie has potential, especially if the film divorced itself from being an Amy Winehouse biopic. Their chemistry makes the doomed romance scintillating even if it feels rife with artistic liberation.
They add a dash of welcome humor too, in particular, a scene where policemen storm into their home while they’re in the buff. Conflating this romance’s ups-and-downs for Amy’s artistic development is, ultimately, the film’s downfall.
There are many more topics my review doesn’t get into, just like the film. These include Amy’s keen ear on building her sound, figuring out the right collaborators, and even the industry acclaim around her music. Even the chaotic spots of this part of her life shown here don’t have new insights with them.
Abela as Amy Winehouse looking at Blake (offscreen) during a performance | Taken from Official Teaser
There’s nothing of the times that fans persisted on seeing her despite inebriation derailing her shows. Even the ceaseless hounding of paparazzi she endured is shown as a daily inconvenience, missing an opportunity to critique the role of the press in diluting sympathy for her. While there may legally be no one “to blame” for what happened to Amy, there is nary a question on why the people around Amy could only do so little to keep her from her vices, especially those very close to her.
If you hardly know anything about Amy Winehouse and are looking into a feature-length crash course of her life that you can scroll your phone to, this film may be for you. But if your love for Amy Winehouse runs deep, listening to her music should suffice. I’ve been replaying Back to Black for days now.
‘Back to Black’ is exclusively screening in Ayala Malls Cinemas starting May 15
