A movie about troubled British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse that follows her spectacular rise and highly public demise opens in UK cinemas on Friday amid a storm of controversy.
Even before its debut, “Back to Black” has sparked controversy, with critics citing everything from the casting to concerns that it will abuse Winehouse’s story.
“Given the vulture-like efficiency with which her life was picked over, it’s near-impossible to think of a sincere reason to make a movie about Winehouse — at least not one that isn’t motivated by greed,” noted music editor Roisin O’Connor in The Independent.
Winehouse, who died of alcohol intoxication at the age of 27 in 2011, was a unique figure with her beehive hairdo, heavy black eye makeup, many tattoos, and smokey voice.
She rose to international prominence with her Grammy Award-winning 2006 album “Back to Black,” which featured the song “Rehab,” which chronicled her fight with addiction.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biography is the second big-screen adaptation of Winehouse’s life, following Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary “Amy”.
That film won an Oscar, but her family, particularly Winehouse’s father, publicly opposed it, claiming it attempted to portray him as “money-grabbing” and “attention-seeking”.
Quest for ‘truth’
After the film became the second-highest grossing documentary at the British box office, Mitch Winehouse complained that it focused too much on the bad and not enough on his daughter’s fun-loving personality.
He intimated that the family could work with another filmmaker in the future to fix the record.
Mitch Winehouse and his ex-wife Janis attended this week’s London premiere, but Taylor-Johnson stated the family did not contribute to her film.
“It was important to meet with them out of respect,” she told Empire.
“But they didn’t have any involvement in terms of… like they couldn’t change things. They couldn’t dictate how I was to shoot,” she said.
The filmmaker, whose 2009 feature “Nowhere Boy” dramatised John Lennon’s early years, said she had been after “the truth” of Winehouse’s life.
“What I wanted as much as possible was the truth of Amy, and Amy’s relationship was that she loved her dad, whether we think he did right or wrong,” she said.
Eddie Marsan, who plays Mitch Winehouse, stated that he attempted to avoid a “comfortable narrative” in which there was “someone to blame” for Winehouse’s death, such as her father or ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
‘Burden of guilt’
To research the role, he said, he approached a friend who worked with both Amy and her father in the music industry who told him Mitch had been a “loving father but he was in an impossible situation”.
“He had a daughter who was an addict, she was the most famous woman in the world, she was hounded by the paparazzi, she had unlimited resources and money. Every drug dealer in London wanted to give her drugs,” the friend told him.
“Back to Black” also depicts Winehouse’s turbulent relationship with Fielder-Civil who has been blamed for introducing her to heroin and who inspired the album.
He said in 2018 he would “always carry a burden of guilt” over his role in her decline.
Marisa Abela who portrays the tragic singer said it would have been a mistake to “judge a character and a character’s decisions”.
“If other people who watch the film decide she shouldn’t have loved a certain person, or shouldn’t have trusted someone, that’s fine.
“The only villains in our story are addiction and the relentless paparazzi. I’m not telling people how to feel about it,” she said.
‘Wayward genius’
Reviews have been divided, although some believe it will still be a box office triumph owing to Winehouse’s remaining star power.
Zach Schonfeld said in the Guardian that “these movies remain profitable” despite describing a new crop of music biopics as “far worse” than previous efforts.
According to Ed Potton of The Times, the film felt “a bit lightweight”.
He commended Abela’s determination to sing on her own, but said the outcome was only as good as “you could reasonably hope”.
According to Peter Hoskin of the Daily Mail, the film failed to convey the “wayward genius of the original artist”.
“If they try to make you watch this movie, say: no, no, no,” he wrote.
“Much better to put on Back to Black, the album, or the song, and remember what really made Amy a star,” he added.