Review of Amy (2015) by V H — 08 Aug 2015

I can't claim to be an Amy Winehouse fan. Before seeing this film, my knowledge of her music was limited to just two songs: "Rehab" and the one where she says "I tolya that I was trouble", neither of which I particularly liked. I knew she had big hair and winged black eye makeup. And I knew that her escapades with drugs and alcohol often made her the butt of jokes on late night talk shows. But being that I'm a sucker for a good documentary, I went to see this anyway and, in retrospect, am very glad I did.

"Amy" begins with footage of a 14-year-old Winehouse singing into the camera at a friend's birthday party, and proceeds to track her improbable career until its tragic end, along with her struggles with bulimia, alcoholism, heroin, and crack. It portrays Winehouse as a shy, humble perfectionist who cares only about her music and has fame foisted upon her largely against her will. Along the way, she's regularly let down, led astray, and taken advantage of by the people who supposedly love her the most: her parents and her boyfriend/husband.

One of the film's highlights is a clip of a clearly-nervous Winehouse recording a duet with Tony Bennett, a moment that helps humanize the grotesque caricature most of us are familiar with. By movie's end, one can't help but feel sad about Winehouse's downward spiral of self-destruction and wonder why it ever seemed so amusing in the first place.