By Kimberly Grant
Every now and then, a biopic comes along in which the actor/actress portraying the real-life person seems born to play the role.
The latest biopic of a late great musical artist, Black to Black, will be in theaters starting May 17.
Back to History
Back to Black explores a snippet of time in the last years of Amy Winehouse’s life and career. For those not old (or young) enough to remember Winehouse (played by Marisa Abela), she was a famous 20-something British singer with a 1960s esthetic. She was different from the other artists of the day. In fact, Winehouse says multiple times in the movie, “I ain’t no Spice Girl.” She was all about the music. And, man! She was talented.
In the film, written by Matt Greenhalgh, the audience learns that Winehouse drew style inspiration and a love of jazz from her paternal grandmother (or nan), Cynthia (Lesley Manville). Her music was inspired by the likes of Sara Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lauren Hill. And, Winehouse’s signature beehive hair style was first created by her nan. Amy’s relationship with her nan is one of the beautiful parts of this film.
Cynthia not only inspires Amy. She is her moral compass. Like many prolific artists of any era, Amy is inspired by someone who challenges her to be better and lives a life so unapologetic that it informs a new generation. In the hands of director Sam Taylor-Johnson, Back to Black is a beautiful film that shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of Amy’s life, while humanizing her. Tracking Winehouse’s budding musical career in Camden Town, London to becoming a multi-GRAMMY®-winning artist, Taylor-Johnson manages to write a love letter to Amy and her nan.
Back to Performance
Abela’s portrayal of Winehouse is almost spot on. From the hair to her sway to her brashness. It’s all conveyed with grace for a complicated soul who left this earth before actualizing her utmost potential. During the movie, I couldn’t help but think Winehouse would have had a Lady Gaga-level career if she had lived.
I also couldn’t help but think “Run! Girl, run!” when Black Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell) came onto the screen. He was the visual embodiment of making a bad situation worse. Introducing her to drugs, Blake’s presence heralds the end of Amy’s life from the first frame. Not to blame Blake, though. Every adult is responsible for their own actions. And, Amy seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with the man who became her husband.
O’Connell as Blake makes the audience hate, then understand him. He is Winehouse’s Achilles heel. He’s also the one who figures out that his relationship with her is completely toxic. It leads him to do the best and worst thing he could do for her at the time: divorce. Unfortunately, the ending of their union sends Amy on a dark path.
Her Dad Thinks She’s Fine
Eddie Marsan as Amy’s father, Mitch sees all the warning signs of Amy’s descent. He just doesn’t do anything about it. Amy famously talks about it in her song “Rehab”, where she’s listing reasons why she shouldn’t get help for her addiction. She sings: “I ain’t got the time, and then my daddy he thinks I’m fine.” In hindsight, it seems more like a cry for help than an observation.
From the audience perspective, it seems that her father ignored the warning signs, because as long as Winehouse was getting rich and famous in her artistry, he could live vicariously through her. Mitch was and is a jazz artist himself. Again, I’m not blaming her father for her death. Winehouse was an adult making adult decisions.
And, then there’s her nan, Cynthia, who represents the stable love that Winehouse so desperately needs. Her mother, Janis (Juliet Cowan), and father are divorced and Amy seems to be caught in the middle of their drama. Naturally, she gravitates to the person in her family who feels like a safe space. When Amy loses her nan, she does begin a downward spiral that looks like multiple pleas for getting good mental healthcare.
Back to the Movie
What makes this movie great isn’t just Abela’s performance as Winehouse. It’s the performances and the way that the film shows the audience what was wrong with Amy, without making her a villain in her own story. It’s easy to say that Winehouse brought her own demise on herself. Rather, it’s better to note that she was a complicated artist who succumbed to monumental grief and dealt with that strong emotion in a bad way. Back to Black is a love letter to Winehouse and why people from Europe to the US loved her and her music.
You can read more movie reviews from K. A. Grant via her Entertainment Blog.
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