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    Amy

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    I don’t feel like going through a list of titles and comparing notes and numbers so I’m just going to make this bold statement with the risk that it’s a tiny bit inaccurate. “Amy” is the best documentary about a single person that I’ve ever seen. This film tells the story of Amy Winehouse, who became a multiple-award winning musician at the age of 25 and, after struggling continuously with drugs and alcohol died at the age of 27 in 2011.

    A lot of documentaries feel like a crash-course about a specific subject. You view films about real-life to be inspired, motivated, moved to action or outraged. You want to come in knowing nothing and leave knowing everything. “Amy” is not a documentary like the rest because it does not feel like a lecture at all. It’s more like a trip in a time machine. You feel like you have been transported back to 2003 when her career began and you stop by every single major event, witnessing what happened until you feel like so many of her friends did, powerless to stop a tragedy that everyone should have seen coming (and I’m not referring solely to her premature death)

    I suppose I should have known that there would be a lot of material for this piece, but I had no idea to what extent Winehouse’s life was documented. There are no shots in which a friend is placed in front of a camera and just talks about what happened for instance. The film is pieced together from home videos, news reports, recordings of her performances, footage from talk shows and clips from the television series she appeared on. It’s as if the people in her life knew ahead of time not only that a documentary would be made about her, but also what the most critical points of her life, the ones we would want to see were going to be so there was always someone with a camera present for those historical events. The way this story is pieced together is unbelievable.

    I need to point out to you that I didn’t go see this movie because I’m a fan of Amy Winehouse’s music. I heard her name in passing on the news at the time, I heard a couple of her songs, but I couldn’t have told you what the titles where and I was more familiar with the jokes made at her expense (such as the lyrics to MC Lars’ “Hey There Ophelia”) than the singer. I didn’t go into this movie as an admirer of hers, I went in cold thinking that I knew the people in charge of making this movie were not only good, but great at their job (I haven’t seen “Senna”, but I do have it on DVD waiting for the right opportunity to be viewed) As the film started, I thought to myself that the music was alright, but not really my cup of tea. As it progressed, I became a fan because I got to know all of the behind-the-scenes and saw the evolution of her style. If you’re like me and you don’t know anything about this young Jewish Britt, do not let that dissuade you from seeing the film.

    I was very moved because the film doesn’t try to make anyone into a villain, or make Winehouse into a saint or anything like that. It just shows you an intimate portrait of a woman who had a unique talent. I didn’t realize it until the film let me examine her songs in a unique way (I’ll get to that in a moment) but Amy’s music was unique to her. The way she used slang and mispronounced words because of her accent made for a wide variety of intelligent rhymes and when you know the inspiration for those lyrics, you really feel their impact. Amy wrote all of her music as a way to cope with what was going on with her life. This is where that genius editing comes in. The chronology of her career and of her music move in perfect unison. When you hear about her friends starting to get worried about her drug habits, we see the lyrics start to emerge to her song “Rehab”, and I mean that literally. Because knowing the words to her music is so important to grasp what was going on with her, we don’t get subtitles on the screen, we get the actual drafts on loose leafs that she wrote scanned and pasted up for everyone to see. As the lyrics of the song come together, you witness how her personal life mirrored what she was writing about. I don’t know if I’m doing it justice, but I’ve never seen anything like it and I can’t imagine it being more appropriate, or better done than here. I got the feeling that every resource, every single one was collected here. If any was giving a pertinent radio interview about being hounded by the paparazzi, there were no visuals available, so instead what do the people involved put on-screen? Footage of her walking outside of her hotel, being bombarded by flashes, and the actual pictures taken, strung together quickly to give us a view of what her reaction was.

    I feel like I got to know Amy with this film, and not just because a bunch of facts were thrown at me for 128 minutes. The execution here is a subtle. “Amy” lets you observe what happened and come to your own conclusions. For example, early on in the film Amy comments how she was profoundly hurt by the fact that her parents divorced after her father led a long affair with a co-worker, and how she is angry at the fact that he was never REALLY there for her and her mother. Makes sense. When you see her father conveniently come back into her life as she becomes more famous, and when you realize that on her left arm is tattooed “Daddy’s Girl”, it paints a unique picture of someone that was looking for help. I didn’t need anyone to tell me this because I’m intelligent enough to draw my own conclusions, and director Asif Kapadia knows that. It carefully edges the line of giving you all of the necessary, documented facts, and the clues required to be able to read between the lines. When I see an interview where she says that she isn’t looking for fame, and that if it came to the point where she wouldn’t be able to walk outside of her door without the rest of the world noticing, and you see her, just a few months later in front of thousands of admirers cheering, it makes you worried. Yes, I felt genuine tension in this documentary, even though I knew how it was going to end. My heart broke with each time that Amy stumbled and it really made me reconsider how we view society. When you witness Amy at the top of her game perform on a late night show with the host proudly announcing her, and then in no time at all we see the exact same person crack jokes mercilessly at her expense when she falls victim to drugs and alcohol, you get angry and you get upset. Not just at the media, but at Amy and at the people around her that didn’t see what you’re seeing right now.

    There were many factors that contributed to Amy Winehouse’s tragic death, and despite what some people featured in the documentary might say, I feel like this is an objective piece that lets you draw your own conclusions while educating you about the singer’s talent, her life and why she really was someone special. It’s a sad movie, but it’s also a tragic masterpiece and when you see someone’s life celebrated, warts and all, by people who really know what they are doing, you leave the theatre feeling more alive than you did going in. I did not walk into the multiplex as an Amy Winehouse fan, but I have a new appreciation for her music now. This is a powerful documentary. I am eagerly looking forward to the next time I get to see “Amy” and I can’t recommend it highly enough. (Theatrical version on the big screen, July 21, 2015)

    10
    HelpfulNot helpful  Reply
    adamwatchesmovies@  23.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

    Thanks for your thoughtful review. I was drawn to seeing Amy by what I saw in the trailers but after reading your review I am definitely going to see the film.

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    countrydame@  26.7.2015 age: 50+

    I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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    adamwatchesmovies@  29.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

    Gee. You sound like my son, Adam. Thought this movie would be too sad. I don't do sad well. I need to buck up and be brave... learn something. Thank-you.

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    wendykwilcox@  28.7.2015 age: 50+ 4 reviews

    Hopefully he wouldn't be insulted by the comparison ha ha. I hope you also enjoy the film.

    HelpfulNot helpful Reply
    adamwatchesmovies@  29.7.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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