Not quite on song
ASIF Kapadia’s Oscar-winning 2015 documentary Amy was a deeply moving tribute to a defiantly outspoken voice of a generation, distinguished by contributions from Amy Winehouse’s family and friends, and some of the people who were touched by her fragility and candour.
It’s a breathtaking piece of filmmaking that elicits sadness and anger in equal measure as we watch the singer totter towards oblivion.
A similarly powerful emotional response slips through the fingers of director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s respectful biopic Back To Black, which reunites the filmmaker with Nowhere Boy screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh.
They career along an emotional rollercoaster track that descends at speed from the outspoken songbird (Marisa Abela) signing with Island Records in 2002 and barrel rolls through a topsy-turvy romance with video production assistant Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell).
His playful seduction of Amy, lip-syncing Leader Of The Pack by 1960s American girl group The Shangri-Las in a busy London pub, is one of the film’s standout sequences.
“I’m not a feminist. I like boys too much,” she tells him with a flirtatious smirk.
Abela looks uncannily like Winehouse with the distinctive beehive hairdo and thick eyeliner and the Brighton-born actress performs her own renditions of landmark songs including Love Is A Losing Game, Rehab, Valerie and the title track. She is note-perfect reflecting the same clinical, surface-level perfection as Taylor-Johnson’s film which leaves us wanting more.
Compared to the documentary’s piercing cry from the heart, Back To Black is an affectionate but muted cover version. Scenes of intoxication, violence and selfharm are artfully staged but it’s telling that when Amy is asked to explain why she lashes out, her plaintive response is: “I don’t know.” Nor does Taylor-Johnson’s picture.
Love was a losing game for Winehouse and Back To Black fails to deal us the winning hand.