Amy Winehouse arrived on the music scene with a big distinctive voice and a bundle of hits.
Instantly recognisable with her beehive hairdo, short shorts, tattooed limbs and loud attitude, she was quickly equally known for wild partying, boyfriend bust-ups and being surrounded by the paparazzi as she was for her music.
Her life and career were cut short when she died of alcohol poisoning at just 27 years of age. Leaving the world with just two albums and scattering of additional tracks.
But who was the woman behind the image and headlines? If you’re looking for Back to Black the new film from director Sam Taylor-Johnson to answer this question, you’ll come up short, because it doesn’t really offer much in the way of explanation.
Marisa Abela delivers a brilliant performance embodying the late singer. Impressively it’s her own vocals used in the scenes, and she nails to sound of Winehouse.
Abela previously appeared in the British television series Industry and she really transforms herself into Winehouse.
We follow Winehouse from aspiring singer doing gigs around Camden Town to be signed and finding moderate success with her first album Frank, but as she heads to the next stage of her career and the monumental success that came with her second record Back to Black, her demons begins to take over her life.
She’s met troublesome boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil, together their absorbed by drinking, taking drugs, arguing and making up. Their lives are surrounded by paparazzi and slowly chaos begins to be the norm.
The film seems to have significantly downplayed the singer’s drug use, and painted those around her in a more positive light that than they possibly deserve.
You’ll leave the cinema with an overwhelming desire to say “Hey Google, play some Amy Winehouse”, but the big questions about who she was, why she was the way she was, and what we learn from her life are largely left hanging.
Jack O’Connell, best know for his turn in Skins, plays Fielder-Civil, Lesley Manville is grandmother Cynthia, while Eddie Marsan appears as Winehouse’s taxi driver father Mitch.
Back to Black is in the cinemas now.
