Back to Black

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville, Juliet Cowan, Sam Buchanan

Runtime: 88 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Strong coarse language

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

‘Back to Black’ is the title of one of Amy Winehouse’s best-known songs. There is a 2012 television series Too Young to Die that depicts the lives and deaths of various celebrities who died well before their time. That title certainly applies to singer Amy Winehouse who, when she died in 2011 at the age of 27, was already a five-time Grammy winner, winner of many awards in the UK and popular in the US.

For audiences familiar with Winehouse and her career, this is a two-hour overview portrait of her life and musical success. Fans of the film are enthusiastic. Critics less so, considering the film a simplification of Winehouse; which is always the case in two-hour film that does not intend to give a full life story. For those fans, there is a 2015 documentary – Amy ­– by celebrated director Asif Kapadia that runs for more than two hours.

One of the difficulties in a film about Winehouse is that, while she had enormous popularity with her career songs, many people did not respond well to her as a person. Again, for those who are fans, there is plenty to see and reflect on in this film. For those who do not respond well to her, the screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh, who has been tuned into British music history with his portrait of Ian Curtis of Joy Division in Control (2007), biography of the young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009), and portrait of the London entrepreneur Paul Raymond in The Look of Love (2013), works well. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, there is a sequence of the older Amy rushing headlong down the street, then we see Amy (Abela) with her family – Jewish background, her ability to sing, her relationship with her father (Marsan), who is separated from her mother, and her loving Nan (Manville).

While there are many Winehouse songs, and star Abela offers a powerhouse performance, singing herself, there is also a musical score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

The film shows the ability of Winehouse and her powerful voice, her love of jazz, and not wanting to be seen as another Spice Girl, the steps of her rising fame, singing in the pubs, the attention of producers, companies, records, popularity, awards, finding the right time for being inserted into the US musical consciousness, the tours, and, ultimately, five Grammy awards.

On the other hand, Winehouse died at the age of 27 of alcoholic poisoning. She is a wilful personality, ambitious, prone to violent outbursts, especially towards the video producer and addict Blake (O’Connell), who becomes the object of her love and infatuation. It is an up-and-down relationship. We see her being violent towards him, his prison term, a divorce – yet, as the screenplay highlights, the continual reference to him in her songs, and during their time together, his presence at her concerts.

Which means that this is also a sad story of a young woman, an alcoholic, suffering from bulimia, anti-drug yet introduced to them, unwilling to go to rehab but finally agreeing (and the hit song Rehab), the deep desire for family and children, sober for a time, yet relapsing and dying.