Amy (2015) - a documentary about the fame, fall and death of Amy Winehouse

[tux]

A month ago, or two, I had a weekday off and went to a newly opened cinema oriented on less popular quality movies. Without too much pondering, the choice fell on Amy, a documentary about the artist, as I thought it would be an interesting watch considering her quite recent death and what tabloids described as a messy celebrity life. I had the privilege to sit in a small ~40 seats theater with great speakers, a big plus for a music themed movie.

To the benefit of the filmmakers, there is plenty of video documentation of her life. The audience is shown the artist handling and escaping from paparazzi, interviews on national TV, captivating performances, but also personal recordings. Birthday parties with the typical faded colors and blur of a 90's home video, shaky filming sessions with friends and business people in her daily life, it is all mixed together so that we can follow her from a shy girl in the suburbs to a world famous soul singer to her death in her home in Camden.
 
The movie timeline is like a rollercoaster continuously going up and down, with periods of success and joy, to lows of despair and chaos. The pattern is repeating, but I never experienced it as boring. You will understand that Amy was a particularly talented artist and unique character, which made her such a hot topic in British media. I think I would have found her to be a bit annoying with her childishness if I had met her in person, but she has a certain charm that makes it hard for me to not like her as she is portrayed in this film.

The typical narrative of describing someone leading such a troublesome life would be that she constantly had to fight these mystic inner demons, but in this documentary people who knew her are allowed to say what they thought was the main cause of her pain: her father. I will not go into details how their relationship affected her, in order to not spoil too much, but you will likely see the connection. This is a well made documentary that I especially recommend to all of you who are interested in how childhoods affect people.