A still of Amy Winehouse from the Amy documentary
Amy, the documentary by director Asif Kapadia, about British jazz-soul-pop singer Amy Winehouse is a riveting account of the rise and fall of one star. Yet, it's a story that has been told countless times, unfortunately. Talented singer rises too fast, gets eaten alive by the public, press and people who want to use her for her money, then suffers a tragic death, usually from some sort of addiction.
Winehouse became a household name after her song Rehab, which appeared on the album Back to Black, the first single from her second studio album released in 2006. She died at the age of 27 of alcohol poisoning, but had battled drug addiction and bulimia for years.
For anyone only familiar with Winehouse's music from the catchy ditty, Rehab, Amy sets the record straight that the north London-born Winehouse was a true talent, bordering on prodigy. She impressed the likes of Tony Bennett (one of the highlights of the film is her recording session with Bennett for his Duets II album) as he holds her in the same esteem as Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, calling Winehouse one of the greatest female jazz singers who ever lived. That sentiment holds true in Amy as Kapadia showcases her amazing innate talent for songwriting and singing.
Amy Winehouse from Amy
Adding to the personalization, the director shows Winehouse's handwritten lyrics, allowing for an intimacy to get inside her music and the heartbreaking emotion in which she writes. He uses a clever device of the handwritten lyrics scrolled across the screen as she sings her music. It's a visual cue that drives home the point that Winehouse put so much of her life and emotion into her work.
Kapadia balances his paean to her amazing talent with a darker side which includes her troubles with drugs and alcohol, her battle with bulimia, the relentless hounding by the British press and her volatile relationship with husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who has consistently been blamed for her descent into crack and heroin addiction and, eventually her death.
Amy Winehouse
Through home videos from friends and from ex-manager Nick Shymansky — they met when they were both teens and just starting out — Amy is a candid glimpse of a modern star. What the digital age brings to Amy is plenty of footage, both homegrown and professional — concert clips, televised appearances on Letterman, Leno and the Grammys, videos of Winehouse shot through smartphones that serve to show in vivid color the trajectory of Winehouse's rise and subsequent fall. It's not always easy to digest, especially when the ending of the story is known from the very start.
Kapadia, who has a way with a tragic figure as we saw in his 2011 film about Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna, doesn't offer any moral lessons, but instead offers the film as a presentation of "facts" that leaves the audience blaming a variety of souls, both individual and collective for Winehouse's death. Her father, Mitchell, a former taxicab driver, comes off as one of the worst villains in the film, showing his resistance to her getting treatment for her addictions because of the "gravy train" he would be giving up if she couldn't fulfill her contractual obligations. Mitchell Winehouse has been quite vocal of his displeasure of the way he is depicted in the film.
There are some missing pieces in the documentary, including how exactly Winehouse became a singer, including Mitchell being the influence of Amy's love affair with jazz and others in her mother's family that were professional jazz musicians. Mitchell's mother, Cynthia, who Winehouse was closest to (she had her granny's name tattooed on her arm), was herself a singer, and sent the young Amy to London'se Sylvia Young Theater School. Winehouse also credited Cynthia with her fashion sense.
Yet, despite the holes in the backstory, Amy is an achievement; a no-holds-barred glimpse into the music business and how it chews up talent and spits it out, coupled with a loving eye and pure devotion to this prodigal chanteuse's music. There's definitely an Oscar nomination in Amy's future.
