Why Amy is still the only Amy Winehouse film you will ever need
There's a new film based on the life of Amy Winehouse in our cinemas. I've seen Back To Black twice now, and it's not bad. Director Sam TaylorJohnson does the best she can with the script, and lead actor Marisa Abela is very good, delivering an impersonation that could momentarily make you forget you're not watching the real person.
But if you want to see a truly great film about Amy Winehouse, then your only choice is still the 2015 documentary Amy.
Amy Winehouse burst into our lives as a fully-fledged astonishment. The single Stronger Than Me – released in late 2003 – was an immediate heads-up that there was a new once-in-a-generation voice in town. Her debut album Frank, released when Amy was still 19 years old, went storming up the charts in the UK and around the world.
Frank was a jazz-inflected collection of a dozen songs, all written or co-written by Amy, delivered in a smoky contralto that invited comparisons to everyone from Dinah Washington to Erykah Badu. The album made Amy Winehouse an international star.
But in late 2006, the still-manageable level of fame that Frank had brought Amy would be eclipsed and obliterated by the release of her second album Back To Black. The singles Rehab, You Know I'm No Good and the title track all became massive hits globally and the album sold by the truckload. Amy's vocals on producer Mark Ronson's cover of the song Valerie quickly became another international top-10 single.
Amy was on talk-shows across the UK, US and the world, her photo was plastered all over the press and the British paparazzi – surely the most venal and pathetic collection of legally-employed scumbags in media history – were camped outside her Camden flat 24 hours a day.
In July 2011, Amy Winehouse was found dead. She had gone home alone with a couple of bottles of vodka from her local off-license and unwittingly drunk herself to death. She had been laying off the drink in the months leading up to the tragedy, and with her body weakened by the eating disorders that had been with her for all of her adult life, Amy simply couldn't survive the amount of alcohol she ingested that night.
Documentary director Asif Kapadia already had the unexpectedly brilliant Senna – the 2010 film on the Brazilian F1 driver – on his CV when he was approached to make this documentary. There were hundreds of hours of film and video of Amy, including home movies that had never been seen except by family and friends, and behind-the-scenes studio and concert footage from recording sessions and shows in Europe, Asia and the US. Kapadia and his crew painstakingly went through all of it, while recording new interviews with the people who still had stories to tell.
Whether you think you're a fan of Amy Winehouse's music or not, Amy is a gorgeously well-made, gripping and insightful film. Amy's teenage years are sketched in here, and we see and hear glimpses of the talent and personality that would soon make her a phenomenon. Kapadia assembled the film without employing a narrator or writing any sort of script.
There is no-one “telling us what to think” in Amy. The film simply lays out the archive and the recollections of her friends, family and colleagues – and allows us to reach our own conclusions.
Most importantly, the filmmakers often just let the songs carry the story. We see Amy writing and recording multiple takes of some lyrics and even hear excerpts from lost tracks that have never been otherwise available.
Amy often said that the only thing that mattered to her was the music – and that if you wanted to understand anything about her, all you had to do was listen to what she wrote and sang.
Amy – the film – honours the music and its creation especially, in a way that Back To Black doesn't manage to do.
If you really want to know about Amy Winehouse and her life, this is the only film you need. Nine years after it was released, Amy is still one of the best documentaries of a life I have ever seen.
Amy Winehouse burst into our lives as a fully-fledged astonishment. The single Stronger Than Me was an immediate heads-up that there was a new once-in-ageneration voice in town.
Amy is available on Apple + TV and on DVD. And the DVD – depending on which edition you have – contains hours of extra footage that are not available anywhere else. That's why smart people hang on to their DVD players.