Mostpeople knew Amy Winehouse for her beehive hair and Ronettes lashes, herpowerful voice and her death at a young age from drug abuse. Not many casual spectatorsrealized her roots were in jazz or guessed that her fondest moments involved meetingand singing with Tony Bennett. Director Asif Kapadia’s Amy, one of this year’s finest documentaries, explores her music as well as her life. It’s out now onDVD.
Amongthe most promising singers to emerge in the ’00s, Winehouswe was drawn toperforming from an early age—if the camera-mugging home video from her 14thbirthday party that opens Amyis any indicator. Kapadia’s documentary has attracted controversy from twoparties who claim the director presents a distorted picture. The most vocal,Amy’s father Mitch, has understandable reasons to feel squirmy since hison-camera quotes and behavior lend him the appearance of a wastrel and a fool.Winehouse’s last boyfriend, barely glimpsed in the film, takes Mitch’s side.
Everylife is complicated and every life story needs an editor, otherwise it would bevirtually impossible to follow (and to contain in a two-hour-eight-minutemovie). Amyis comprised in large part from the sometimes grainy, sometimes unfocused,seldom well-composed visual files that form the raw record of everyday life inthe 21st century. On one of those recordings, Winehouse recalls, “When my dadwas there, he wasn’t there.” His infidelity caused her parents to separate whenshe was 9. Sometimes she was bitter—and yet he not only remained in her lifebut was also a source of guidance. Turns out her biggest hit, “Rehab,” wasentirely autobiographical. When her manager, Nick Shymansky, said she had to goto rehab, she said “No, no, no”—and yes, her daddy told her she was just fine.
Amy’sstory plays out on two divergent spirals—the rise of her singing career and thedownward arc of her addictions—until the spirals converged at the aborted startof what became her final (and canceled) concert tour, featuring a confusedWinehouse looking gaunt, lost and tongue-tied. From a guest on Jay Leno shesank to becoming one of Leno’s jokes.
Foranyone aware of Winehouse only from her brief pinnacle as a pop star conjuringthe look and sound of the ’60s girl groups, Amywill be an enlightening look at her roots in jazz. She lovedBillie Holiday and brought a cultivated sensibility to her recordings. She wasadamant at the onset of her career: None of that Spice Girls pop crap for her! Amy doesn’t explain the transitiontoward her popular breakthrough album, Backto Black (2006), but with her jazz aspirations in mind, it becomeseasy to hear how the great singers of the past shaped her phrasing.
Onthe downside, Winehouse was prescribed anti-depressants at age 13 and soonbegan to exhibit an addictive personality—especially for sex and alcohol. Whenasked in a 2003 interview about fame, she confided, “I don’t think I couldhandle it. I would go mad.” The drinking got worse as her star rose. Amy doesn’t address where andwhen heroin was added to the mix, but calls out her husband, BlakeFielder-Civil, for encouraging crack, the ultimate drug for eradicatingfeeling.
Amy traces the simultaneous rise and fall of atalented woman driven to self-expression but unable to exorcise her demonsthrough music. Is it the whole truth? Even the people closest to her may neverknow for sure.
