Back to Black (2024) Focus/Drama RT: 122 minutes Rated R (drug use, language throughout, sexual content, nudity) Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson Screenplay: Matt Greenhalgh Music: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Cinematography: Polly Morgan Release date: May 17, 2024 (US) Cast: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Juliet Cowan, Lesley Manville, Sam Buchanan, Harley Bird, Ansu Kabia, Ryan O’Doherty, Spike Fearn, Francesca Henry, Liv Longbourne, Bronson Webb, Therica Wilson-Read, Thelma Ruby, Matilda Thorpe, Pete Lee-Wilson, Miltos Yerolemou.
Rating: **
In my review of 2015’s Amy about the late jazz singer Amy Winehouse (1983-2011), I stated that no conventional Hollywood biopic could tell her story as well as the brilliant and moving documentary. Back to Black proves me right. The reviews for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s (Fifty Shades of Grey) film haven’t been great or even good. In fact, they’ve been mostly negative. I disagree to a point. While far from being one of the greatest musical biopics ever made, it isn’t the worst either. It could have been better, much better, had it gotten past its fascination with Amy’s public image as a train wreck. I realize her personal issues- i.e. alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, bulimia- are a significant part of her story, but what about the music? Back to Black is ostensibly about the making of the same-named Grammy-winning album, but it plays more like a dramatized tabloid article than a movie.
Marisa Abela (“Teen Talk Barbie” from last year’s smash hit Barbie) plays Amy, a young Jewish girl from North London with a powerful singing voice and an attitude to match. From the start, she makes it clear she “ain’t no f***ing Spice Girl”. She becomes an instant success after the release of her first album Frank, but as we all know, fame comes at the cost of privacy. She’s constantly hounded by the press who always seem to lurking around just waiting to capture her erratic behavior on film.
Back to Black also looks at her relationships with her father Mitch (Marsan, Sherlock Holmes) and boyfriend/husband Blake Fielder-Civil (O’Connell, Unbroken). This is where the whitewashing begins. If you go by the film’s version of events, Mitch was a supportive dad who cared only about his daughter’s well-being. NOPE! In reality, Mitch left the family when Amy was nine and only resurfaced when her career started to take off. When it was suggested Amy should go to rehab, he said she didn’t need it and pushed her into performing even though it was obvious she was exhausted and needed help. NONE of this is depicted in Back to Black. On the upside, Johnson does show that Amy’s relationship with Blake was a case of co-dependency.
The biggest problem with Back to Black is that it’s incredibly superficial. It doesn’t deal with any part of Amy’s story in a meaningful way. It gives us the salient points without actually exploring the characters or events in depth. It fails to show what made Amy an icon. As for the musical performances (Abela does all her own singing), they’re there but only to serve as a reminder that Amy was a singer in addition to a tabloid freak show. We don’t even get to see the making of the titular album. It just happens. Like I said, the film is more interested in the sordid details of Amy’s short life. Even then, Johnson doesn’t go beneath the surface.
The acting is okay. Abela makes a valiant effort, but doesn’t quite nail what made Amy Winehouse Amy Winehouse. At times, it’s like she’s a teen girl at a costume party as Amy. O’Connell is okay as Blake; it’s the script that sells him short. The movie tries to portray him as a victim of Amy’s tempestuous personality, but that is far from the truth. People familiar with Amy’s story knows he was a user who saw her as a meal ticket. He wasn’t all that different from her dad. None of that comes through in Back to Black.
Although deeply flawed and inaccurate, Back to Black is a nonetheless fascinating movie. It’s as interesting as it is frustrating. In the right hands, an Amy Winehouse could be a musical biopic masterpiece on par with Sid and Nancy, the ultimate self-destructive love story. Back to Black is far from a masterpiece. I recommend watching the documentary Amy instead. It tells her story without sensationalizing it.
