Movie Review - Back to Black

 

Time for another biopic of a music artist! This time, it's the turn of a singer that made headlines with being a mainstream jazz singer, but had many problems including drug and alcohol addiction among other things. Plus, until I saw this film, I never knew that she had controlling behaviour and is a bit of a diva... well the diva part I kind of already figured out. So going into this, I already knew much of her story, her controversies and at least two of her songs are ones I like listening to a lot. At some point, I will watch the documentary on Netflix which I hear people feel a bit more than they do with this. But anyhoo, let's look at the film about a lady that went to rehab, wants a lady called Valerie to come over... and that's all the songs I know from the legendary Amy Winehouse (played by Marisa Abela in this film):

The film opens with a scene of Amy running before taking us back to a moment where she spends time with the Jewish side of her family. She shares a bond in music with her nan Cynthia (played by Lesley Manville) and has a love/hate relationship with her dad Mitch (played by Eddie Marsan). One day, her demo tape is sent to Nick (played by Sam Buchanan) of Island Records and impressed by her singing, she signs on to them to make music. Things then occur including love, sex, drugs, alcohol and other things as we watch Amy's rise to fame and then some.

I'll be honest, it was pretty much as I expected the film to go. I didn't really feel anything because I already knew her story already. I think the acting from everyone is good and unlike Elvis, it does feature songs very much tied to her besides her own in a way. The scenes where she goes downhill can be a little difficult to watch (especially the controlling behaviour scenes which are a trigger for me), but overall, a pretty decent take on her story from the lady that's married to Aaron Taylor-Johnson. 7/10