Amy

Ever since I was young I have had a fascination with Amy Winehouse. I was ten years old when she came out with her second album Back to Black. My parents would play Rehab and Me & Mr. Jones on a loop as they were preparing dinner. I remember waiting in line at the grocery store and seeing her face all over tabloid magazines. Eating disorders, drunken performances, drug use... her world was unlike anything I've ever encountered. This extreme and troubling lifestyle piqued by interest. I was fifteen years old when Amy Winehouse died. She was only twenty seven years old, and this seemed impossibly young to me. Even though Amy Winehouse's album has continuously played on my iPod for nearly a decade, I never took the time to thoroughly learn about her life, as I had routinely done with my other favorite musicians. This last summer, the documentary Amy, directed by Asif Kapadia, was released. Amy is one of the most impactful and emotional documentaries I've seen. It is now rightfully in the running for the Academy Award of Best Documentary.

What was most chilling about the documentary was the clarity of Amy Winehouse's pain. Archived footage was used for the film, so we were able to hear Amy tell her story. Although her friends and family were interviewed throughout the movie, Amy's voice and viewpoint are dominant. The entire film is beautifully entwined with Amy's music. The placement of Amy's songs clearly demonstrated the emotional significance that they had to her. The viewer is able to understand how each song stemmed from Amy's personal life. She allowed music to be an expressive outlet for her experiences.
It is heartbreaking watching Amy experience seemingly endless hardships in her life. Yet the film is able to reinforce that Amy's songs were drawn from her pain. Each song was deeply personal to her, and the film was able to tell the stories surrounding them through Amy's eyes. There was nothing forced about this documentary. Things aren't being spun by journalists or the media, which was the case during her life, as the story is kept close to Amy's perspective.

I was amazed that this documentary was able to go so far beyond Amy's music and a basic timeline of her life. It was truly able to demonstrate the dangers of addiction and drug use- which were brought on by the toxicity of a relationship. The crippling effects of the paparazzi and the media were another well-addressed aspect of Amy's life. Fame completely derailed Amy. She is shown in countless interviews expressing since the early stages of her career that it would not be something she could handle. Sure enough, she was right.

There were very few elements of Amy that I would criticize. There were minor things that I didn't find necessary, such as text on the screen displaying song lyrics. I see how this may have been done intentionally, meant to clarify wording that may be hard to accurately detect through the song. However I found it slightly distracting and took away from the raw emotion seen in Amy's face on screen. Over all though, there are very few elements that I found to be flawed.

The film Amy beautifully showcases Amy Winehouse's incredible talent as a singer/songwriter. There have been several documentaries done on Amy Winehouse, but Amy feels raw. It takes the viewer on a journey of her suffering, which led her to her magnificent creations. It is sad to think that Amy Winehouse lived only long enough to grace us with two albums. This film is a great tribute to the woman with a mesmerizing voice that left the world too soon.