Back to Black: Winehouse biopic does very little to justify it's existence.

⭐ 1/2

Rob Ryan

Just this year alone there have been two music biopics that have received less than favourable reactions from my self and many others, the first was Bob Marley: One Love which was a dull and flat retread into the life of the reggie legend that failed to give any non fan a sense of why he became so legendary in the first place and now we have Back to Black. While the former was still financially successful due to Marley fans breaking ticket sales, I somehow doubt that the latter is going to have that same impact. especially considering that the death of Amy Winehouse is still a very difficult subject to warrant a passionate and enthusiastic movie going audience to go and watch a version of a tragedy they have already mapped in their heads.

It's difficult not to talk about this movie without comparing to the 2015 documentary Amy directed by Asia Kapadia which gave full blown interviews and accounts from friends and family and people that knew and loved her, regardless of how much they meant everything they said, it still gave you a vivid picture that more or less gave you an understanding into her downward spiral in the first place, what director Sam Taylor-Johnson and writer Matt Greenhalgh (who helmed the much better Nowhere Boy about the early life of John Lennon) offer is an unfocused and confused mess that gives viewers very little in the way of nuance beyond what you have heard so many times before.

This makes the final film much more disappointing when you consider the fact that the marketing gives heavy emphasis on how "you can see how this true to life love story sparked one of the most popular songs of the early 21st Century" In reality this aspect of the movie that I was somewhat interested being explored more thoroughly only seems to make up about 30 minutes of runtime if that, the rest comprises of recreation of famous concert footage that seems to take much space, as if the filmmakers are unsure if they make a good movie so they add these scenes just to add some familiar and nostalgic filler for hardcore Winehouse fans. Unfortunately it doesn't help that at no point did I see Amy Winehouse and not an impersonator (Marisa Abela) like the ones you see in Elvis concerts or even Bob Marley ones despite the best efforts of all involved.

Then again the choice to actually have Marisa Abela sing the songs is certainly a more preferable choice then just having her mouth be dubbed with the actual songs.

I think what's more frustrating about this movie is that I can so easily see a version of this that works so much better, a movie that isn't just doing a dramatised retread of the 2015 documentary, if it had chosen to focus on one aspect on her life, like her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell) how they fell in love through their love of old school Jazz and pop groups and how their love and eventual self destructiveness lead to the inspiration of that one song, then it might have been more interesting for me to discuss and write down.

As it is, the filmmakers feel the need to depict of all of the greatness and flaws of her life in one go, as a result, moment's that could have been utilised for more dramatic purposes, feel glossed over, part's of her life feel rushed, stilted, even fake. We never get a sense of time passing, within less than 45 minutes we're already passed when the titular song is No1 in the charts and now we get the scenes of her getting wasted on booze and drugs which the filmmakers exploit for all there worth. Even if you haven't watched the documentary, what does this style of storytelling tell you about her other than she did music and drugs? I understand wanting to be honest about her biggest strengths and weaknesses but it's not enough to just depict her as a helpless drug addict anymore. We know this. It's not enough to have scenes of her being hounded by the paparazzi, everyone knows this. It's not shocking or surprising to show text at the end that gives details of when she died and how old she was. We know.

Even if it had just been a tragic love story as advertised or did anything that I suggested, I don't think there was any way the filmmakers could have made a good movie out of this, at best I think this could have been a average to mediocre biopic, but Back to Black is so disjointed and unsure of itself and any chance it get's to have it's own sense of identity, to show a small scale version of the woman behind the songs, to get a real sense of who she was, the movie retreats back to concert recreations and cheesy dialogue and drug addiction scenes.

Then there's the depiction of Mitch Winehouse (Eddie Marsden) who's whole role in the film gives you an inkling of how this movie got green lit in the first place, I am not going to go into details because we will be here all day, but all I'll say is that any moment that shows him to be a concerned dad rings false considering his not so positive portrayal in the 2015 documentary. Same with the moment that shows Amy crying as she is passionately singing the title song in the recording booth considering her demeanour in the documentary footage showed her to have a very neutral tone throughout. Or even the moment when Amy reveals to her ex how she wrote "Stronger than Me" about him and his first response is to walk off in a strop. Or even moments when her late nan (Lesley Manville) goes on about "How you've got no voice like any other" Add that to the list of this movie's many parodied and over done music biopic cliches.

Back to Black tries to do too much and as a result ends up doing very little to understand Amy, her struggles, her relationships, her passions, her everything. You might have a better viewing reading though wikipedia, watching her interviews, or even the live concert footage that you can watch on Youtube without having to pay money to watch a dramatised version of it. Back to Black does very little to justify its existence on any level whatsoever.

Back to Black is out in UK Cinemas now.