Back to Black (Film Review)

Sam Taylor-Johnson is no stranger to the music biopic having already directed Nowhere Boy, a John Lennon biopic in 2009. Following the global success of Fifty Shades of Gray (2015) and A Million Little Pieces (2018), Taylor-Johnson is back with her Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, starring Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse.

The estate-approved film follows Amy Winehouse’s rise to fame, from her tight-knit family to her heavily publicised relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil. Back to Black is centred around the highs and lows of her short career, paying special attention to the role of media harassment and addiction leading up to her untimely death at 27.

One of Taylor-Johnson’s more interesting ideas in the film is how she uses Winehouse’s tattoos to form a mosaic of her life. She gets one tattoo to celebrate a gig, one to show her father her appreciation for him, and another to honour her beloved grandmother Cynthia’s passing. Lesley Manville’s performance as Winehouse’s grandmother is touching, and incredibly well done. Her role is also used to illustrate where Winehouse gathered much of her vintage inspiration.

Taylor-Johnson manages to turn Blake Fielder-Civil into an extremely charismatic figure, thanks to a show-stealing performance by Jack O’Connell. O’Connell does particularly well in the scene where his character first meets Winehouse at a bar. Though this encounter portrays Fielder-Civil in an extremely generous light, it succeeds at showing Winehouse’s perspective and infatuation with him. Unfortunately, though, O’Connell’s acting skills are also wasted at times, especially by depicting his victimhood of abuse at the hands of Amy Winehouse as mere background information. 

Despite the excellent concert scenes and acting performances, Back to Black misses the mark overall. At times Abela manages to capture the essence of Winehouse but often ends up dramatising her accent and mannerisms to the point of caricature. Unlike many music biopics, the music takes a back seat in this film. Little time is spent showing Winehouse writing songs or recording. Instead, much of the film focuses on her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, and her family. It is unfortunate that more time is not given to showing Winehouse’s musical talents, both for performance and for songwriting. The few scenes involving concerts show Marisa Abela at her best, highlighting Winehouse’s ability to both captivate and endear herself to an audience.

It seems ironic that a film so focused on criticising tabloid coverage ends up highlighting the parts of her life most known to the public as a result of that coverage. The film would have been much stronger had it focused on lesser-known details of Winehouse’s life, and showed her as a more complete person aside from what many already know. There is also an intense focus on Winehouse’s desire to be a mother and a heavy implication that the absence of a child is what led her to begin drinking again. At the same time, the film ignores many crucial details of Winehouse’s rise to fame, jumping from her normal life to stardom relatively instantly. This choice leaves much of the film lingering on her struggles with addiction, ultimately seeming not much different from the tabloid coverage it so heavily critiques.

Back to Black is in UK cinemas now. The film will be released in the United States on the 17th of May.