Amy (2015)

There are some artists which have this special sound you connect with the first time you hear them. It’s something I don’t have often, but I can still remember when I saw the video for Amy Winehouse’s “Stronger than Me”. Not only her voice was different, but so was the subject matter. When this came out it had been a while since I bought a CD, but for this one I immediately went to a record store to buy her album Frank.

She was an artist who I checked out a bit more than I did others and unfortunately you saw her taking some wrong steps in her life. Her death in 2011, even though shocking, never came as a surprise. Because of her popularity various documentaries have been made about this singer, but as this one has been made by director Asif Kapadia my expectations were high.

That’s because Asif Kapadia previously was responsible for the excellent documentary Senna, made entirely from old news footage and old interviews. With Amy he does almost the same thing. He gained acces to private videos and was allowed to interview friends and family. The result is a movie which try to give a clear insight into the tragic life of Winehouse. The movie opens with footage of a birthday where the kids start singing “Happy Birthday” and once 14-year old Amy opens her mouth to sing everyone is silent. When her father leaves her mother it has huge impact on her. She’s a girl who, according to the documentary, didn’t have any restrictions in what she could do. When she tells her mother that she has found the perfect diet, where she can eat anything she wants and afterwards throw up, this doesn’t bring them to action. They think it is something which will eventually stop.

Music is an important form of expression for Amy and she is quickly noticed and offered studio time. The ball starts to roll and she is offered a record deal. Even though she doesn’t expect to ever be famous, the reality turns out to be different and after her second album, Back to Black, she is constantly followed by the paparazzi. When she falls in love with Blake Fielder his influence on her is disastrous. She follows him in everything he does, including heavy alcohol and substance abuse. Add to that all the attention from the media and pressure from the label and it results in someone who doesn’t have any moment to herself. When she gets away from it all on a small island for a long vacation, her father shows up with a film crew who is shooting a reality show about him. Something Amy can not appreciate.

Asif Kapadia has succeeded again in making an intriguing portrait of someone who has passed away way too soon. He doesn’t hold back in showing the darker sides of the story (like some shocking private pictures in which Amy Winehouse is clearly under the influence and very skinny). It still is unbelievable to see how a woman with so much talent eventually died so soon. The interviews with her friends, bodyguard and ex-husband make the story complete. A documentary which is worth checking out.

The only question I did ask myself after seeing this was whether or not you should see this at the cinema. Reason for this is that the movie, for the most part, consists of footage of very poor quality (think low resolution Youtube clips) and which often are slowed down as well. When you blow up those images to the format of a cinema screen, you can imagine that doesn’t look good. In my opinion it is better to see this film at home on your TV than head to the cinema to check it out.