Review of Amy (2015) by Allen G — 04 Jun 2016

I certainly welled-up a little at the end and there's no doubt that Winehouse was a fascinating person who lived a crazy life. This documentary, however, is not as unique. I just would have liked to have seen a little more inventiveness. Is it just me who is becoming a bit sick of the standard biographical movie format?

Winehouse lived a wild life and this film gives a real glimpse into what it must be like to suddenly become famous and to deal with the pressures that come from that. The family dynamic was something that I found particularly interesting- the tense relationship between Amy and her father and his carelessness at times made me really feel for Winehouse.

Further, as someone who isn't particularly familiar with her music, it was good to get a glimpse of her jazz roots and to her more of her other than that annoying Rehab song (which is still a radio favourite, unfortunately).

Anyway, all of that was good but the film never took me anywhere new or different. I couldn't shake the feeling that Winehouse herself would have wanted something far less-conventional but at the same time, how do you go about making a film like that? 'Amy' does the trick but I think it lacked originality compared to some of its Oscar opponents, most notably, Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Look of Silence'.