Review of Amy (2015) by Kevin A — 22 Jul 2015

As Brian Wilson sang in "Caroline, No", it's so sad to watch a sweet thing die. Amy Winehouse was both burdened and gifted with a natural, serene yet sultry, unique and almost timeless gift for vocal interpretation of modern music, mostly a hybrid of jazz and pop, that defies verbal description.

Also visited upon her was massive insecurity, bulimia, loving yet ineffective parents who watched rather than nutured Amy's burgeoning although unbridled career path, and then stood off to the side as Amy wallowed in self pity, self destruction and self medicaiton due to belief of her inability to fit in as a "proper" girl.

There are scenes that make you want to look away but you can't. Amy's tragic tale transfixes the mind, fills one's brain with a litiany of "woulda/coulda/shoulda's" that didn't happen.

Stardom, fandom and the public's insatiable thirst for TMZ moments, how far have you fallen today(?), provide the template for the examination of Amy's descent into a life that would untimately take her life as well.

Mitchell, her father, is a sideline cheer leader who is oblivious to the help her daughter's downward slide demands. Very distressing yet quite ironic is that the only protectors that Amy assembles are her hired ones, yet they are the most pure, hired to protect her, yet not succumb to the temptations that ultimately took Amy's life.

The film enjoys expansive use of Amy in her teen years as well as her emerging efforts to be signed as an artist. The films best effect is to put front and center the heretofore overlooked ability of Amy as a lyricist.

Throughout the film her plaintiff, emotionally hungry drift from one emotional or chemical solution to another cries out for correction, yet her family does not provide. Again, so sad to watch a sweet thing die.

Amy left us way too soon and one hopes that her object lesson is not lost, yet the "27 Club" membership grows...Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and ....Amy. So sad, so very sad.

This is a powerful study of growing up wiith a gift the whole world wants and that gift crushes you to death unless you're ready for it, and that usually is not the case. RIP Amy.