Amy
I'm a good two months behind the curve here but was pleased to discover that Peckham Plex was still playing "Amy", Asif Kapadia's documentary about the life of Amy Winehouse. It's a relatively straightforward chronological narrative, starting with an early home video of Amy singing "Happy Birthday" to one of her friends through to her untimely passing in 2011.
The film sadly confirms Amy's theory early on that "I don't think I could handle fame. I think I'd go mad", as we watch this supremely talented young woman struggle under the pressure of becoming a worldwide celebrity. Amy's torturous relationship with Blake Fielder is also the subject of a great deal of scrutiny in this film. It's easy to believe that the two had a destructive effect on each other, but Fielder comes across as arrogant and vacuous. It's difficult to deny his role in her downward spiral too, introducing her to crack cocaine and heroin.
It's a difficult and saddening watch, but the film has a great many pleasures too. These largely come through her stage performances themselves, demonstrating Amy's truly exceptional talent as a jazz vocalist. When she is announced as a Grammy winner on stage at the Hammersmith Studios, her joy feels genuine and radiates through the screen.
At 2 hours and 10 minutes, it's a bit too long and it could probably lose half an hour of its running time at least. There is too much home video footage of her and her young friends larking about that at times doesn't add a great deal. I would also question the decision to show the paramedics removing her body from her Camden flat, although it does serve to illustrate the media's seemingly non-stop voyeurism. At the start, viewers are warned of flashing images but it won't just be epilepsy sufferers who feel violated by the barrage of papparazi intrusion. I found it pretty sickening in truth and I don't think that there can be any doubt that the media contributed to Amy's downfall.
Mitch Winehouse has taken against the film, suggesting that Kapadia had an agenda to portray him as the villain. I'm not convinced that that's the case. The documentary is relatively even handed and largely leaves the viewer to make up their own mind. My own feeling is that taking a camera crew to St Lucia to film your ill daughter are not the responsible actions of a loving father. Early on in the film, Amy laments the fact her father was not around to assist her mother in reining in her wild behaviour as a teenager. Later on, she continues to require his approval, insisting that she would only seek professional help on the recommendation of her father.
His decision helped form the inspiration for her most famous single. How devastating it seems to listen to "Rehab" now. "If my Daddy thinks I'm fine....". The truth of course is that she wasn't. "Amy" is a fine piece of work that reminds us precisely how large a talent the world of music has lost.
The film sadly confirms Amy's theory early on that "I don't think I could handle fame. I think I'd go mad", as we watch this supremely talented young woman struggle under the pressure of becoming a worldwide celebrity. Amy's torturous relationship with Blake Fielder is also the subject of a great deal of scrutiny in this film. It's easy to believe that the two had a destructive effect on each other, but Fielder comes across as arrogant and vacuous. It's difficult to deny his role in her downward spiral too, introducing her to crack cocaine and heroin.
It's a difficult and saddening watch, but the film has a great many pleasures too. These largely come through her stage performances themselves, demonstrating Amy's truly exceptional talent as a jazz vocalist. When she is announced as a Grammy winner on stage at the Hammersmith Studios, her joy feels genuine and radiates through the screen.
At 2 hours and 10 minutes, it's a bit too long and it could probably lose half an hour of its running time at least. There is too much home video footage of her and her young friends larking about that at times doesn't add a great deal. I would also question the decision to show the paramedics removing her body from her Camden flat, although it does serve to illustrate the media's seemingly non-stop voyeurism. At the start, viewers are warned of flashing images but it won't just be epilepsy sufferers who feel violated by the barrage of papparazi intrusion. I found it pretty sickening in truth and I don't think that there can be any doubt that the media contributed to Amy's downfall.
Mitch Winehouse has taken against the film, suggesting that Kapadia had an agenda to portray him as the villain. I'm not convinced that that's the case. The documentary is relatively even handed and largely leaves the viewer to make up their own mind. My own feeling is that taking a camera crew to St Lucia to film your ill daughter are not the responsible actions of a loving father. Early on in the film, Amy laments the fact her father was not around to assist her mother in reining in her wild behaviour as a teenager. Later on, she continues to require his approval, insisting that she would only seek professional help on the recommendation of her father.
His decision helped form the inspiration for her most famous single. How devastating it seems to listen to "Rehab" now. "If my Daddy thinks I'm fine....". The truth of course is that she wasn't. "Amy" is a fine piece of work that reminds us precisely how large a talent the world of music has lost.
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