BACK TO BLACK

Back to Black is the latest in a long line of musical biopics. A trend that shows no sign of stopping with films, amongst others, about Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, The Beatles, and The Bee Gees in development.

Back to Black though, as the name might suggest, is Amy Winehouses (Marisa Abela) turn at the Hollywood treatment

So, does it reach the heights of Rocketman, or does it plunge the depths of Stardust?

The biggest problem that Back to Black has is that during its runtime I never once believed that I was watching Amy Winehouse. It always felt like someone acting the part rather than becoming the part.

Think back to the best of the musical biopic performances.

Taron Egerton IS Elton John

Despite your opinions on the film as a whole, Rami Malek IS Freddie Mercury

Here Marisa Abela PLAYS Amy Winehouse

She doesn’t manage to portray any of her wit or her attitude. She doesn’t manage to portray any of her style. 

It is cosplay. A tribute act. A decent tribute act - she’s certainly got the voice - but a tribute act all the same.

And this isn’t Abelas fault. This solely lies with the script. The dialogue feels so written I can barely imagine it naturally coming out of a human face, turning Amy and those around her into caricaturistic facsimiles of themselves. 

The script manages to be both incredibly on the nose - for example the moment where they try to make her go to rehab… and she says no - but also poorly focused.

It completely fails to explore any of the intricacies of Amy’s life and character, instead reducing her solely to her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil. And whilst I appreciate that he played a big part in her life Back to Blacks version of Amy exists solely in his orbit. She seemingly has no other friends. Has few other relationships. Can barely string a sentence together without pining over him.

It glosses over her transition into someone who would smoke weed occasionally, to a crack cocaine and heroin addict. It glosses over the mutual self harm. It glosses over the alleged bulimia. It ignores  And instead focusses on him.

Father Mitch (played here by Eddie Marsan) gets pretty much a free pass, portrayed as a well meaning, if slightly bumbling father figure, while ignoring the reported more exploitative nature of their relationship.

Which considering just how much time Back to Black spends on her hardships is bizarre. It rarely delves into the good about Amy, that which is still celebrated today, favouring instead the negatives. But it does this on such a surface level, with such an intense focus on one man, that it is impossible to feel like you’re getting close to knowing the her.

Back to Black does focus far too much on the tragedy, ignoring for large parts the legions of fans that loved her. Racing through her rise, so that it can look leeringly at her fall; The exact thing it half-heartedly condemns the press for doing.

Back to Black is, regrettably, more caricature than character study. A biopic never managing to capture its subject. 

Most of the damage is done by its overly written script, but it also never seems to fully understand what made Amy Winehouse such celebrated name. Why people still love her music now. 

If you want to learn about her life Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary Amy would be a far better use of your time. Or instead, just go back and listen to her music. While writing this I listened to the album Back to Black and felt I got closer to Amy Winehouse than I ever did watching the film.

This though, with its unwillingness to fully delve into Amy’s life… perhaps Back to Blake would have been a more apt title.