Back to Black review: Amy Winehouse biopic breaks its promise to celebrate her ... trends now
Back to Black (15)
Verdict: You Know It's No Good
Remember Stars in Their Eyes? The telly show with Matthew Kelly?There's more than just a touch of Stars in Their Eyes about Back to Black, Sam Taylor-Johnson's new biopic of that most talented, most troubled of singers, Amy Winehouse.
'Tonight, Matthew,' its lead actress, Marisa Abela, seems to say, 'I'm going to be Amy Winehouse.' The same uplifted hairdo. The same lip piercing and tattoos. The same London drawl and jazzy singing voice.
Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black failed to live up to its promise to celebrate the late singer's music
The film follows Amy's becardiganed early years to her mid-noughties pomp to her alcohol-induced demise
It's a careful act of mimicry. At times, it's even an impressive one. There are some scenes, such as a recreation of a raucous performance at Glastonbury in 2008, that sell you on the notion that maybe, just maybe… if you squint… this is her?
But there's a big problem: it ain't actually Amy. This 90 per cent facsimile just draws attention to the missing 10 per cent: the wayward genius of the original artist.
There's no genius here. Just Saturday-night impersonation.
You might be able to do it with, say, Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. But Winehouse died just over a decade ago. We're not comparing this movie with old newsreel footage, but with the relatively dustless corners of our own memories and music collections.
Does this mean that Back to Black was doomed to fail from the start? Perhaps. But
