BACK TO BLACK
Starring: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, and Lesley Manville
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
ADRIANO
I could complain about another musical biopic following the tropes of the genre, but Back to Black sticks out amongst the crowd because it’s so appallingly disrespectful while also being formulaic. The movie just puppeteers Amy Winehouse's (Marisa Abela) story as a means of judgment while zooming through her musical and personal accomplishments at lightning speed. I'm aware of Winehouse's personal struggles, but for a film that claims it’s about Winehouse's music, it's very uninterested in that. Just two hours of addiction porn with no respect for the subject. Watch the documentary Amy instead.
CALEB
It’s ridiculous that Back to Black has the gall to criticize the paparazzi, considering it spends the majority of its runtime hypocritically obsessing over Amy Winehouse’s (Marisa Abela) love life and addiction problems. The film is essentially a multi-million-dollar adaptation of a tabloid you'd find at Walmart. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson seemingly has no interest in Winehouse’s creative process, as the film sprints through the creation of her albums to focus on her trauma. Amy Winehouse deserves to be remembered for her success, yet Back to Black decides to highlight her failures. It’s a tasteless, formulaic, exploitative film that disrespects an amazing artist.
PRESTON
Back to Black’s director Sam Taylor-Johnson is able to successfully capture Amy Winehouse’s tragic story while showing restraint by not over-sensationalizing, which brings realism to this musical biopic. Unfortunately, countering complete lack of restraint with intermittent full-length song interruptions make for a plotline that is disjointed at best, and makes the film more of a slog than it should be. Marisa Abela (Amy Winehouse) mimics Winehouse’s voice almost perfectly, but its constant highlighting takes us out of the story we've come to hear. Decent movie, but will I watch it again? I say, “No, no, no!”
