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‘BACK TO BLACK’ REVIEW: AWFUL AMY WINEHOUSE BIOPIC GETS A NO, NO, NO!
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Published May 16, 2024, 2:26 p.m. ET
Back to Black | Trailer
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movie review
BACK TO BLACK
Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (drug use, language throughout, sexual
content and nudity). In theaters May 17.
A basic biopic about Amy Winehouse, the eccentric singer who recorded two albums
and then died of alcohol poisoning at the devastatingly young age of 27, was
never going to work.
Obviously.
Hers was a whirlwind, hard-lived life that ended abruptly in tragedy.
While Winehouse was rapidly ascending to worldwide fame, she was also spiraling
downward into addiction and tabloid notoriety.
The “Rehab” singer was found dead at home in 2011, having been deprived a rich
and fulfilling existence. And, frankly, that quick arc does not make for a rich
and fulfilling movie story.
MORE FROM JOHNNY OLEKSINSKI
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As expected, director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s woeful film “Back to Black” doesn’t
play as the gripping battle of musical genius vs. personal demons it fancies
itself to be.
Instead it’s all sadness, songs and sensationalism. Look at her guzzle booze,
inhale drugs and stumble around Camden. In short, more tawdry exploitation.
To which I say: No! No! No!
4
Marisa Abela plays singer Amy Winehouse in the movie “Back to Black.” AP
Winehouse, a rebel from the outset, detested the vacuous “girl power!” cries of
the Spice Girls and wanted to avoid the traditional road to making it big.
Even in her relatively short career, she was a groundbreaking artistic force who
heavily influenced British vocalists that came after her, like Adele.
So, to honor her, she’s been handed the most formulaic and pedestrian film you
could possibly imagine.
Cut to a young Amy (Marisa Abela) singing in the living room for her adoring
family in London during the Jewish holidays! Here she is getting a fateful phone
call from a big-time record label. Look — there’s her picture on a double-decker
bus!
We’re treated to a slideshow of predictable scenes, paired with the actors’
caked-on North London accents that could lead to a global shortage of earplugs.
4
Winehouse’s rise to stardom and fall into addiction is given the dull,
traditional Hollywood treatment. AP
Where Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh try to bulk up the blase
biopic is their “Clue”-like hunt for who to blame for Winehouse’s demise.
Is it her husband Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), the target of the title
song, who allegedly introduced her to cocaine and heroin and wanted to be with
her largely for her fame?
The film’s ending rather gallingly seeks to connect Winehouse’s death to the
birth of her ex’s son with his new girlfriend. Obsessed with motherhood,
apparently, she dies just one scene after hearing the news.
Or is it the fault of her black-cab driver dad Mitch (Eddie Marsan), who said
she didn’t need rehab when her concerned manager was begging her to go?
4
The film goes on the hunt for who or what to blame for Winehouse’s death: her
ex-husband Blake (Jack O’Connell), her father Mitch or the death of her
grandmother. AP
Her beloved grandmother Cynthia’s (Lesley Manville) death from cancer is another
culprit.
Yet, nobody watching “Back to Black” has come looking for investigative
journalism. Winehouse fans crave compelling insight into who Amy Winehouse was —
as a person and a musician — and, for that, I’d recommend listening to her
albums.
“Back to Black” is far more concerned with the Kahlua and Bailey’s in her
favorite cocktail than how she wrote her fantastic songs.
What can sometimes rescue lesser films of the musician biography genre (and how
many of those there are!) is a thunderous central performance. Andra Day in “The
United States vs. Billie Holiday” is a prime example of lifting the merely
mediocre.
4
Marisa Abela is admirably fragile as Winehouse, but doesn’t get her edginess. AP
Abela, not so much.
What the British actress from the HBO show “Industry” brings to the table is a
genuine fragility. That softness was always there in Winehouse’s music, brassy
though it was, but not on the many front pages displaying her bad behavior. What
Abela can’t summon — at all — is the woman’s edge.
23
What do you think? Post a comment.
When the actress finally dons the recognizable messy beehive and sweeping
eyeliner, it’s little more than a detailed Halloween costume. She gamely does
her own singing, but that too takes us out of the plot, since the voice she’s
replicating is so singular. Abela can’t rise above a belabored impression.
Perhaps there was a strong movie buried here somewhere, if the filmmakers had
not made so many traditional choices to dull a messy figure for Hollywood. But,
for that, “Back to Black” would’ve had to have gone back to the drawing board.
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Marisa Abela plays singer Amy Winehouse in the movie "Back to Black." AP
Winehouse's rise to stardom and fall into addiction is given the dull,
traditional Hollywood treatment. AP
The film goes on the hunt for who or what to blame for Winehouse's death: her
ex-husband Blake (Jack O'Connell), her father Mitch or the death of her
grandmother. AP
Marisa Abela is admirably fragile as Winehouse, but doesn't get her edginess. AP
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