Back To Black (2024) Dir: Sam Taylor-Johnson
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The moment this biopic was announced, I knew it was gonna be bad news. The life of iconic noughties singer Amy Winehouse was tragic enough without what looked to be a pretty poor depiction of it from director Sam Taylor-Johnson. Once again it was left up to the media to choose how the artist would be portrayed.
Some of the editing was straight-up jarring at points, especially during the transition to the 'Back To Black' era of her life. The film was awkward and melodramatic in all the worst ways. Even some of the shot choices left much to be desired, although I could at least understand a little of what they were going for. To that end, some of the cinematography and scene choices were just as bizarre. I don't understand why on earth there had to be any nudity in the film. It was so blatantly unnecessary.
The best bit about the film was the music, because it was Amy's songs, although the singing was unfortunately nowhere near the level of Amy's real capabilities. I liked the way the film integrated some of the songs, however, others were lumped in clumsily or for lazily dramatic effect. So much was left behind or not fully thought through.
It glossed over or missed so much, and seemed to fail the grasp of the full image of Winehouse's life. Instead, it chose to reflect the media's image of her. It just summarised some of the bigger moments of her life, without ever giving a sense of nuance or care to any of it. I didn't get the sense that the filmmakers truly knew or cared for the story of Amy Winehouse.
The timeline was frustrating and easy to be confused by. There are some very significant jumps in time, with very little explanation or context by the filmmakers, which means audiences who are less familiar with Winehouse will surely have a hard time keeping up with the placement of everything. This isn't helped by how surface level everything is. Like I said, this is not a personal film - far from it.
Marisa Abela conflicted me greatly with her portrayal of Amy Winehouse. I got the impression that she wanted to do the singer a good service with her performance, but she missed the mark in a lot of ways. This was most apparent during the early periods of Amy's life. Abela's singing wasn't great, but comparisons to the late singer she was depicting won't have helped her case.
Jack O'Connell basically just rehashed his character from 'Skins', but it felt natural enough, in fairness to him. I can't say I particularly liked the writing of his character, who was given a saintly portrayal by the screenplay, but O'Connell's acting was fine enough, I felt.
The supporting cast flit in and out of this film, with many of their characters never really feeling all that important, which is frustrating considering the impact some of them had on Winehouse's life. Of those, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville get the most screentime, and Manville does well with it. I wasn't such a fan of Marsan, although that was mainly due to the bizarrely skew-whiff writing.
Overall, this was a saddening and uncomfortable watch, as I suspected it would be, and not because it was particularly powerful or well written. It demonised Winehouse to a horrendous degree, and painted some of her worst enablers and influences as saintly figures in her life. I recommend watching the 'Amy' documentary by Asif Kapadia, rather than this rather depressing and skewed depiction of the late artist's life. Ultimately, I think it's a film that didn't need to be made, and wasn't good enough to justify its own existence.
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