Asif Kapadia’s Amy documentary is the much-anticipated biopic piece on British singer Amy Winehouse’s meteoric rise and very public demise.
By Keeva Stratton
The documentary uses plenty of raw footage taken by her friends and associates, as well as drawing from first hand accounts by those closest to her, to tell an immensely tragic tale.
At times, through her home videos, it feels as though Amy herself is telling her story. As a viewer, it’s very powerful and utterly devastating.
The Amy Winehouse we got to know publicly was a brash, bold young woman, whose drug and alcohol addiction cut short the career and life of a once-in-a generation voice. Amy delves deeper, showing how the abandonment by her father in her early years, the disconnect with her mother, and the general struggles of her working class youth – which exposed her to drugs and fuelled her bulimia and depression – set Winehouse firmly on a fragile and destructive path.
As a teenager, a spirited Winehouse is signed to a record label, and her first album Frank showcases her distinct, mature and powerful voice that seems at odds with her youth. Winehouse writes her own lyrics and has modelled her style on jazz singers from another time, including Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. In her songs, she offers a raw insight into her life experiences, and as the documentary unfolds, the literal nature of her lyrics is quite chilling—here was a young woman sharing her pain with the world, and while everyone was singing along, it appears few were actually listening.
Frank enjoyed enough success to pave the way for Winehouse to sign with an even bigger label and write another album. Musically, she was in control, with many artistic freedoms. Yet, just as she was finding a sense of control and reaping the monetary rewards that flowed from her musical talent, she was swept up in the arms of the wrong man—Blake Fielder-Civil.
Part of Camden’s underground party scene, Fielder-Civil and Winehouse’s affair (they were both seeing others at the time) would leave her heartbroken and reignite her depression (which was commonly accompanied by her bulimia). Ironically, this ill-fated affair would prove the inspiration for her most successful songs, all while leading her down a destructive path that would end in her early death.
To cope with a messy breakup, Winehouse turns to alcohol, and this has her closest friends and then-manager very worried. They try to make her go to rehab; and, like many times later in her career, it’s her father that tells her she doesn’t need to go. She doesn’t go, and instead she parts with her manager and turns her experience into her first big hit and truly commercial success, her song Rehab. This catchy tune, and its heavily photoshopped music video, launches Winehouse internationally. But behind the scenes she is having whiskey for breakfast, and her starved frame is not coping under the pressure.
Her success draws the opportunistic Fielder-Civil back into her life. They marry, and he introduces her to heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine. With her Back to Black album topping the charts, the media soon takes an interest in her private life and avidly covers her rapid descent—drug fuelled benders, cuts, bruises, an overdose and his arrest.
It’s all too much for Winehouse, and with Fielder-Civil incarcerated, she seizes her moment to clean herself up.
When finally free of Fielder-Civil, the film shows that it’s her father that takes up the role of abuser. On her father’s instruction, a recently drug-free Amy is hounded by film crews and coerced into touring. She is forced to revisit over and over the songs that bring back to life the more harrowing moments of her relationship with her ex-husband—all to ensure the profitable monster of fame is sustained for her father’s benefit. Her death from an overdose comes soon after.
Amy is a genuinely heartbreaking portrait of an immensely talented artist, who appears especially vulnerable to abusive men, addiction and depression. The vibrant young Amy we are introduced to is so quickly replaced by the addict, unable to break free when those around her benefit from her weakened state. It’s quite unbelievable to watch.
In Amy, we also discover that Winehouse’s lyrics weren’t simply expressive, but rather in many ways a desperate plea against the pain she felt at various stages of her early depression and the darker moments in her relationships. In her lyrics she had moments of lucidity, but her inability to act on her own observations ultimately cost her life, at only 27.
It will be difficult to listen to her songs in the same way as before, following such a powerful exposition.
Directed by: Asif Kapadia
Runtime: 128mins
Release Date: AMY will release nationally on July 2, with the exception of Perth on July 16 and the Gold Coast Arts Centre on July 23.
Reviewer rating: 5/5
