Rising actress Marisa Abela takes on the gargantuan task of portraying Amy Winehouse’s tragic life in a biopic mired and weighed down by a problematic vision.
Back to Black
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson
Starring Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville
Runtime: 2 hours, 2 mins
Synopsis
Amy Winehouse (Abela) is starting to find career success but faces creative issues with her new studio, who are strongly advocating for a stronger pop sound. After taking a break to experience more life for her songwriting, she becomes infatuated with Blake (O’Connell), kicking off a whirlwind romance as her depression and addiction begin to take center stage.
This Was Always Going To Be Hard
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson should be commended for her willingness to tackle this subject, but finding the right balance of defense, criticism, exploration, and authenticity of Winehouse and the people around her was always going to be a tough proposition.
Biopics are extremely difficult to pull off because there’s a ton of factors to consider:
- How much leeway has the estate given the creative team? What’s their perception of the project? Do they have a fair representation of their own subject?
- How does the director / screenwriter perceive the person they are covering? Is that perception a fair representation?
- How well does the public know or understand the behind-the-scenes issues that were integral to that performer’s life?
- How does the public currently feel about the subject matter? Are we culturally in a place where we can handle a dissection of the subject, or are we going to be too reactive? Ignore the nuance?
If you can wade through that and still generate a solid film, you may end up with something respectful, amazing, and genuinely moving for everyone involved. However, what we receive with Black is something in the middle, which will likely work for some people and infuriate others because of what it leaves out or doesn’t push far enough on.
For example, the narrative doesn’t let Winehouse’s father and husband off the hook for their actions, but the film may not go far enough in dissecting their influence on Amy’s career and personal issues, neglecting to push back on Mitch’s reluctance to have her attend rehab, omitting her issue with harder drugs as introduced by then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil or delving into her body image issues which is chronicled well in Amy, the 2015 documentary that covered her life.
Credit: StudioCanal / Focus Features
Without that context or the additional stories that we get in Amy, it makes the resulting presentation a little mean in how it presents her. Seeing the aftermath of Amy attacking Blake makes him seem incredibly sympathetic, but that same attention isn’t given to her mental state; it creates a disjointed flow to the toxic, up-and-down nature of their relationship. The latter half of the film, once Amy has attended rehab, is more cohesive in this regard, but by then, the damage is already done. I wouldn’t be surprised if most hardcore fans tune out well before they reach that point and get to see her last moments presented with more care than previously shown through the runtime.
Marisa Abela’s Performance
What shouldn’t be lost despite those issues is Marisa Abela’s performance as Amy Winehouse. She provides the much-needed energy and care to this role and shows that she put in considerable work to approximate Winehouse’s vocal range and mannerisms. There are some songs where Abela will never match Winehouse’s sound, but the attempt is admirable and serviceable. Had her effort been paired with a better vision for Winehouse’s story, then it’s possible we’re talking about the movie in an entirely different light, maybe even Oscar-level attention. As it stands, her energy is wasted, and I couldn’t help but feel terrible seeing such potential squandered. I am excited to see what Abela does next after this, though, and hope she’s able to create something better in her next outing.
Songs To Nowhere
It’s always a hard line to figure out when and where to use an artist’s discography. Do you use them in release order so avid fans can follow along? Do you remix or move them around significantly to fit the flow and narrative you’ve established? And how far from the original can you get before it almost becomes parody? Just because an artist released one song during a particular period of their life doesn’t mean it’s the most emotionally relevant to the audience or at the time you’re presenting it.
Credit: StudioCanal / Focus Features
Aside from historical moments, like Winehouse’s iconic 2008 Grammy performance, many of the songs simply occur from scene to scene, with very little emotional resonance. Not that every song needs to be telegraphed, but other than the example above, songs seem to come in randomly or without much fanfare, it’s clear the narrative expects us to be moved by their inclusion. It’s sort of like having a conversation with a friend who leaves their sentence hanging, expecting you to fill in…
(the gaps. fill in the gaps)
However, they haven’t done enough work in the preceding sentence to make you care, so you’re simply standing there wondering why they believed it would work.
To be fair to Black, I had these same concerns with 2022’s Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody and 2019’s Respect covering Aretha Franklin. But those films were dealing with biographies that, while complicated in their own right, weren’t nearly as fraught with tonal issues, and each ended with a great, iconic performance that gave the preceding film a fantastic bow.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Back to Black aspires to the greatness that other biopics have achieved but falls painfully short of. Despite Marisa Abela’s solid performance as the iconic Amy Winehouse, there’s a multitude of cinematic issues plaguing this film and keep it from fully honoring the late artist’s work and achievements.
Even hardcore Amy Winehouse will likely be turned off from this film, so I can’t recommend this for them or the casual moviegoer.
Score: 6 out of 10
- Narrative Decisions- 5
- Biopics are constrained to certain life moments, but it’s still important for each director to decide how they want to portray those arcs and stories.
- Connecting the Music and Scene- 5
- There’s a lot of detachment from the energy generated by this cast to the inclusion or placement of a song throughout the whole runtime.
- Abela’s Portrayal- 8
- Marisa Abela does a stellar job replicating Amy’s voice and providing some much-needed juice to an otherwise unremarkable production.
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