Amy Winehouse started as a jazz singer - her idols, we learn in this documentary Amy, were Sarah Vaughn and Tony Bennett - and actually looked down on a lot of pop music from her time period (she was born in 1983, so she would've been prime for 90's music, maybe the 80's carry-overs if she was staying current). She's even described by one or two of the people interviewed that she was deep down an old soul, or at least had the massive appreciation for where soul music and good R&B music came from. Indeed at one point one of her collaborators said she mused on making a "Jazz/Soul supergroup" that would've included a member of the Roots and Mos Def. It's sad so much of what she could've been didn't get realized and she died at 27, in large part due to media WAY-over scrutiny, and both too much and not enough attention from her family and friends.
By that one should say this, as her dad does (not that he's a figure to especially look up to from how we see him portrayed in the film visa-vi abandonment and pressing his own media into her private spaces in 2009), that she could've helped herself. But could she? Depression, anorexia, anxiety issues, bulemia, all of those issues that one may find as clichés with certain celebrities. What marks Winehouse as apart from that is she really didn't want to be a celebrity (and there is a difference from those that do and don't, see the Kardashians for more of that). If she just performed in small jazz clubs in front of 20 people she would've been fine; ironically, her song 'Rehab', about the conflict she had with her dad in an incident of going to Rehab, went to number one across the world, won her Grammys, and acted as something of an albatross around her neck.
The film Amy has so much in exploration of this person and the world that she was in, how the media affected her (in scathing, unfair attacks, not to mention the Mosquitoes of the Press world the Papparazzi, when she was at her most vulnerable, at least as we can see), and the ups and downs with her family and friends, who wanted the best for her by also couldn't take her drug and alcohol dependency. We see her in many moments and clips, some from press interviews, others her performances where, more often than not (until near the end, at least as the film shows) she killed it in a great way every time, and in her personal spaces.
If there is a flaw, and I don't think it's insignificant after thinking about it after I left the theater, it was the style of the clips. Some of this is just not good-quality footage; some of this can be excused away as that this is the best they could use, but other times it's not (a clip of Jay Leno looks like a 3rd-rate rip off of YouTube). The director made the decision to not do any of the 'talking-heads' style of interviews, just using audio - only some fly-over shots of London seem to have been specifically shot for the film for transitions - and that's fine too, except that in the second half I started to get tired of seeing how some of this footage was presented. Stylistically, it really resembles more of an online video than a theatrically-ready feature film.
I mention after I left the theater because this was something that only occasionally took me out of the film. The subject matter, the subject herself, is a compelling one enough to carry one through the murkier technical waters. If one already knows a lot about Winehouse it may not give you a whole lot of new news. But just as a story unto itself, given to the casual or not-known-at-all audiences to Winehouse's career highs and lows (the latter was me, I'd heard 'Rehab' vaguely) it's a searing portrait of what power and release can go into dealing with one's demons in the creative process, while the personal problems make thins just always so difficult.
Most of all difficult, indeed, is what to predict will happen to that person next; if one saw just the scene with her singing the duet with Tony Bennett near the end - an idol collaboration realized - one might see her talents and insecurities in one little bubble. She sings a take magnificently, but has to back off and go into her own head to go further, to be better.
By that one should say this, as her dad does (not that he's a figure to especially look up to from how we see him portrayed in the film visa-vi abandonment and pressing his own media into her private spaces in 2009), that she could've helped herself. But could she? Depression, anorexia, anxiety issues, bulemia, all of those issues that one may find as clichés with certain celebrities. What marks Winehouse as apart from that is she really didn't want to be a celebrity (and there is a difference from those that do and don't, see the Kardashians for more of that). If she just performed in small jazz clubs in front of 20 people she would've been fine; ironically, her song 'Rehab', about the conflict she had with her dad in an incident of going to Rehab, went to number one across the world, won her Grammys, and acted as something of an albatross around her neck.
The film Amy has so much in exploration of this person and the world that she was in, how the media affected her (in scathing, unfair attacks, not to mention the Mosquitoes of the Press world the Papparazzi, when she was at her most vulnerable, at least as we can see), and the ups and downs with her family and friends, who wanted the best for her by also couldn't take her drug and alcohol dependency. We see her in many moments and clips, some from press interviews, others her performances where, more often than not (until near the end, at least as the film shows) she killed it in a great way every time, and in her personal spaces.
If there is a flaw, and I don't think it's insignificant after thinking about it after I left the theater, it was the style of the clips. Some of this is just not good-quality footage; some of this can be excused away as that this is the best they could use, but other times it's not (a clip of Jay Leno looks like a 3rd-rate rip off of YouTube). The director made the decision to not do any of the 'talking-heads' style of interviews, just using audio - only some fly-over shots of London seem to have been specifically shot for the film for transitions - and that's fine too, except that in the second half I started to get tired of seeing how some of this footage was presented. Stylistically, it really resembles more of an online video than a theatrically-ready feature film.
I mention after I left the theater because this was something that only occasionally took me out of the film. The subject matter, the subject herself, is a compelling one enough to carry one through the murkier technical waters. If one already knows a lot about Winehouse it may not give you a whole lot of new news. But just as a story unto itself, given to the casual or not-known-at-all audiences to Winehouse's career highs and lows (the latter was me, I'd heard 'Rehab' vaguely) it's a searing portrait of what power and release can go into dealing with one's demons in the creative process, while the personal problems make thins just always so difficult.
Most of all difficult, indeed, is what to predict will happen to that person next; if one saw just the scene with her singing the duet with Tony Bennett near the end - an idol collaboration realized - one might see her talents and insecurities in one little bubble. She sings a take magnificently, but has to back off and go into her own head to go further, to be better.