Amy Winehouse, among the most promising singers to emerge in the ’00s, was drawn to performing from an early age—if the camera-mugging home video from her 14th birthday party that opens Amy is any indicator. Asif Kapadia’s documentary has attracted controversy from two parties who claim the director presents a distorted picture. The most vocal, Amy’s father Mitch, has understandable reasons to feel squirmy since his on-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.
Every life is complicated and every life story needs an editor, otherwise it would be virtually impossible to follow (and to contain in a two-hour-eight-minute movie). Amy is comprised in large part from the sometimes grainy, sometimes unfocused, seldom well-composed visual files that form the raw record of everyday life in the 21st century. On one of those recordings, Winehouse recalls, “When my dad was there, he wasn’t there.” His infidelity caused her parents to separate when she was 9. Sometimes she was bitter—and yet he not only remained in her life but was also a source of guidance. Turns out her biggest hit, “Rehab,” was entirely autobiographical. When her manager, Nick Shymansky, said she had to go to rehab, she said “No, no, no”—and yes, her daddy told her she was just fine.
Amy’s story plays out on two divergent spirals—the rise of her singing career and the downward arc of her addictions—until the spirals converged at the aborted start of what became her final (and canceled) concert tour, featuring a confused Winehouse looking gaunt, lost and tongue-tied. From a guest on Jay Leno she sank to becoming one of Leno’s jokes.
For anyone aware of Winehouse only from her brief pinnacle as a pop star conjuring the look and sound of the ’60s girl groups, Amy will be an enlightening look at her roots in jazz. She loved Billie Holiday and Tony Bennett and brought a cultivated sensibility to her recordings. She was adamant at the onset of her career: None of that Spice Girls pop crap for her! Amy doesn’t explain the transition toward her popular breakthrough album, Back to Black (2006), but with her jazz aspirations in mind, it becomes easy to hear how the great singers of the past shaped her phrasing.
On the downside, Winehouse was prescribed anti-depressants at age 13 and soon began to exhibit an addictive personality—especially for sex and alcohol. When asked in a 2003 interview about fame, she confided, “I don’t think I could handle it. I would go mad.” The drinking got worse as her star rose. Amy doesn’t address where and when heroin was added to the mix, but calls out her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, for encouraging crack, the ultimate drug for eradicating feeling.
Amy is a fascinating documentary, tracing the simultaneous rise and fall of a talented woman driven to self-expression but unable to exorcise her demons through music. Is it the whole truth? Even the people closest to her may never know for sure.
Opens July 10 at the Oriental Theatre.
Amy
3 and a half stars
Directed by Asif Kapadia
R
