AMY (MA 15)
Limited release
IN A documentary chock-full of memorable and terrible moments, Amy Winehouse’s walk to collect her first Brit award is the most chilling.
As the then-teenager ascended the stage stairs, strangers screamed and literally tried to grab a piece of her.
Looking back over her shoulder at the madness that had instantly enveloped her, it was clear that this was a girl who had stumbled into something she didn’t want and couldn’t understand.
Within a few years she had been transformed from the darling of London with the magical voice to a tabloid train wreck fuelled by drugs, alcohol and the greed of those around her.
This is a life lived on film, from grainy home movies and teenage hijinks on phone cameras to the endless paparazzi shots of a tiny figure whose every move was huge news.
There is so much footage of Winehouse that the documentary makers rarely use talking heads, but overlay interviews with photos and video of the star. It seems almost as if her tragic life was being shot in preparation for this documentary.
The irony of this bright star burning out story is that Winehouse never courted or wanted the celebrity spotlight that fell so heavily upon her.
With her once in a generation voice and song writing talent to match, she was a diva in the best sense of the word.
An unfortunate series of events combined with a coterie of unscrupulous hangers-on left this young woman cut off from the real world and her true love – making music.
It’s a tragic but wonderful documentary that tells us much about a celebrity obsessed society and the sad world of a talented girl from a dysfunctional family who had neither the will nor the skill to overcome her fatal flaws.
– Danny Buttler
