by Kendric Chua, contributor
When the world stage made room for Amy Winehouse, the spotlight became fixed, to an almost scorching degree, on her entire life. The documentary “Amy” makes that point very clear: that Winehouse’s journey was put completely on display by the media, to devastating effect. This film is essentially a portrayal of this once-in-a-lifetime talent’s rise to the top and the plummet to her death, which all happened within five years. Winehouse’s life is dissected in “Amy,” giving us insight into the factors that led to her eventual collapse; from hungry fans and paparazzi, to a love life full of hurt. “Amy” isn’t just an expression of the current state of our voracious entertainment-hungry society, but also a tragic actualization of Winehouse’s life, proof that “love is a losing game.”
“Amy” follows the artist’s life from the beginning, taking us into the story of a young Jewish girl from London who finds her purpose in music as she deals with a household of conflict, resulting in the buildup of some deep emotional issues. Details of Winehouse’s parasitic relationship with the trappings of fame are scattered throughout the film, letting loose powerful moments of emotional gunfire. The pressure and stress in Winehouse’s life seem to come from almost every avenue, which all stem from her rise to fame. It is made apparent in the film that her substance abuse and self-sabotage were the eventual results of the industry’s crippling demands and scrutiny. Although Winehouse’s story is told in a deeply melancholic way, it is still grounded in a very objective procedure. The film relies entirely on photographs and material from her life overlain by audio interviews. These interviews alone help carry the plot, providing a well-placed sense of substance and validation without losing focus on Winehouse.
The pacing of the film is well-crafted and comfortable. Even if “Amy” doesn’t make use of a purely linear plot, the chain of events is still easy to keep up with. “Amy” jumps in and out of memories and pivotal moments while always coming back to follow a generally chronological path. An especially elegant example of this can be seen after the film reaches her death; the plot jumps into moments of her last musical venture, her brief respite from addiction and an encounter with her longtime musical idol Tony Bennett. The film ends on a sweet note despite the tough material, with an image of Winehouse the way she’d want us to remember her – making music.
Despite the bulk of the film relying on a collection of concert footage, interview material and home videos shot by friends and family, director Asif Kapadia (who is best known for “Senna,” another documentary released in 2011) is able to maximize the film’s emotional power using a variety of direct and surprisingly intimate techniques. A great example of this is when he uses successive and rapid bursts to white, accompanied by the clicking sounds of flash photography to enhance and further stress the abusive nature of the media’s constant surveillance of Winehouse’s professional and personal struggles. Kapadia makes sure that this comes through, whether with his films’ visual mechanics or just with content that speaks for itself. Every now and then he superimposes Winehouse’s music with handwritten lyrics, while directly addressing moments of her life that correspond to the lyrics on-screen, helping us realize how her life and her music were connected. It wasn’t just Winehouse’s career, or something she was good at, or even just your run-of-the-mill “passion.” Her music was a part of her fiber.
It’s important to remember that, amidst the tragic direction her life veered into as she delved deeper into the dark side of celebrity, Winehouse’s relationship with music was something she knew she could always rely on. The drugs, the alcohol, the producers, the people, none of that mattered when she was making music. The film suggests that everything else that wasn’t involved with Winehouse’s creative process (including fans, making money, and sometimes even performing) contributed to her end. Winehouse put a kind of crude and personal English spin on an otherwise classically approached style. Her voice was potent and yet smooth. Her music was her constant, the one thing Amy Winehouse knew she could always count on being there. And now, as illustrated by “Amy,” it is her legacy.