Amy

Award wining director Asif Kapadia (Senna) once again brings us an insight into an industry icon. This time he shifts his focus from the world of motor racing to the music industry with a look into the short life of the troubled songstress Amy Winehouse.

In 2003 Winehouse received critical acclaim for her album, Frank.  Three years later this was followed up by the commercially successful, Grammy-winning Back To Black. Yet her fame was short lived; in 2011 she died of alcohol poisoning at the tender age of 27. Professionally an old soul, with the power to floor listeners with vocals and lyrics well beyond her years, in her personal life she was a train-wreck, which fed a media frenzy looking for sensationalism. Through a mixture of interviews, performances and personal video, Kapadia explores this starlet’s life from the cusp of stardom, to her battles with drugs and alcohol that lead to her premature death.

With access to the videos of family and friends, Amy gives a seemingly exhaustive insight into the singer’s career. This can be raw and at times hard to watch as the audience sees the price fame, substance abuse and a string of poisonous relations have on this obvious talent. It is also worth pausing to examine the power of editing in the construction of the narrative. As tempting as it is to look upon this as a definitive document, due to the level of personal access and insight granted, there is no doubt that Amy is telling a story. It is a tale full of heroes and villains that plays upon the mythic archetype of the tortured artist taken before their time. In fact, the Winehouse family has withdrawn support over the way Mitch is portrayed in the documentary. This doesn’t lessen this phenomenal construction, but it is worth keeping in the back of your mind.

Perhaps the most trusted source is Winehouse herself. Her lyrics are raw, emotional and intensely personal, which is something Amy is meticulous in conveying. In its song choice this documentary perfectly matches the song to the singer’s moments in life, emphasising the words, either by projecting them on screen or by footage of the handwritten original works. What should be a cheap gimmick instead drives home how much of herself the lyricist does share, heightening empathy for Winehouse and the effect of the tragedy to come.  This often unfiltered interaction comes across in her interviews (for both good and ill), giving the world more than a manufactured, media trained pop sensation, but rather a more unguarded insight than the characteristic black eye makeup or bird’s nest of hair would suggest. 

With this documentary, Kapadia grants us a phenomenal insight into a major talent of the era. Amy is as bittersweet as the star herself and equally compelling.