April 11, 2024 • 6 mins
Movie Reviewer Ben O’Shea reviewed the new Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black and told Russell Clarke whether it was any good or not.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great the flick with ben O'she The Story of Amy Winehouse,
ben O'she Is now Here to give us his verdict
on a movie about a woman who had an extraordinarily
sadly short life but such a talent, but like so
many talents, a darker story behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, absolutely extraordinary talent, extraordinary demons behind the scenes that
really played a huge role in her career, what happened
in its tragic end, And I think this film back
to black. How much you enjoy it as a fan
of Amy Winehouse and as a viewer who's maybe not
so familiar with her work will really depend on whether
(00:40):
or not you've seen a documentary by a director Asif Capatia.
He did the Center documentary, he did the Maradonna documentary,
so he's absolutely brilliant at the doccos. He did a
film about Amy Winehouse in twenty fifteen, just called Amy,
and you can stream it. And if you watch that doco,
you really get a great insight into those d demens,
into what drove her to drink and then to drugs,
(01:03):
and the people behind the scenes who didn't take enough
care of her, who thought, well, here's our cash cow.
We're going to just not send it a rehab. We're
going to not do the things that are right by
her health so she can keep making money for us.
The doco reveals that, in really unflinching detail, the film
is not like that at all. The film skates across
(01:24):
the surface. It's very superficial, and one of the reasons
is because the family is very closely involved with the film.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And so they want to maybe gloss over some of
the bits a little bit. Is it also partly in
case of, you know, wanting to reach a wider audience,
so it's not just purely for that's a partline house fans. Yeah,
we've seen this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We've seen this with other musical bio pics in the
past about people who had, you know, sort of troubled lives,
like where you're talking about Freddie Mercury and b I was.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Just going to say, now that's another movie that's been
accused of the of the same absolutely glossing over some
of the problems. And the challenge I think for the
filmmakers is to get the rights to use the music,
which is extremely expensive. You probably have to do a
bit of a deal with the devil. You have to
get the family, the estate, the record labels on board,
(02:13):
and that probably means you're not going to tell a
warts and old story, and that suits everybody's purposes because
then the back catalog of that particular artist rockets up
the streaming charts. Again, everybody's a winner, and the fans
are happy as well, because no one, you know, a
big fan of a band doesn't necessarily want to go
into a cinema and spend two hours being depressed watching
something that's really grim. They prefer to relive all the hits,
(02:37):
and so that's certainly what Back to Black does. With
Marissa Abella playing Amy Winehouse. She was a star of
the TV series industry, and she is phenomenal. You will
go into this movie and you will swear that you're
watching Amy Winehouse on the screen, absolutely incredible, singing all
her own songs. So there's no mining this. This is
the real deal.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But maybe maybe a couple of scenes there's a bit
of overlay of Amy Winehouse real voice, but a lot
of it she's singing herself, looks the spitting image of Amy.
It's actually uncanny the likeness. And so Marissa is amazing.
She there's no question she is an absolute gem in
this movie. It's all the other stuff around her that
I have some issues with, like in the docco and
(03:17):
people who follow Amy Winehouse's career closely know that her
dad is a problematic character in her life. In the
song Rehab. In the song Rehab, she even says, you know,
my daddy says I'm fine, I don't need to go
to rehab, when every man and his dog could see
she should have been in rehab to potentially save her life.
In the film, her dad's played by Eddie Marsan. He
(03:40):
comes off looking like a hero, like a saint.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Of course, he reasons, we just talked about it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He's involved, that he's involved in the film and making
the film. And even Blake, her on again off again
boyfriend husband who they had an extremely fractious relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
He was a drug addict.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
A lot of people blame him for getting Amy hooked
on drugs, and that's certainly depicted in the film. He's
played by Jack O'Connell, who's an amazing British actor, and
he does a great job. But again it's very sanitized
and Blake almost comes off looking like a hero as well,
saying repeatedly or Amy you know, I can't deal with
how violent you are when you're drunk. You know, I'm
(04:23):
the one who's realized this is a toxic relationship. We
can't be together.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So this is seeming like it's Amy Winehouse is the
one who's coming.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Out, Yeah, exactly, Like to me, it kind of victims.
To me, it kind of felt like the same people
who exploited her in her life are still doing it
now posthumously, And so it was a bit icky. Director
Sam Taylor Johnson directed Fifty Shades of Gray, and she's
a director who in her own way is a bit
(04:50):
problematic as well. And so there's a few things going
on with this film that anything to do with Amy
Winehouse that make it maybe a bit challenge for some viewers.
There'll be plenty of people who go along and watch
it and just happy to see Marissa Abella doing an
incredible performance, hearing all the songs which are amazing, and
you know, it tells a story from start to finish.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So is it enough though for anybody who's not a
real Amy Winehouse fan, who doesn't who didn't buy the albums,
who you know some of the songs, is it enough
of a reason to go to the cinema and see
the story of the singer's life.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I reckon it is just for the pure reason
of seeing Marissa as Amy. Like I think you know,
she is so so good it makes it worth the
price of admission. You won't teach you anything that you
probably don't already know about Amy Winehouse's life. It's so superficial.
But for her performance alone, it's worth going to the
cinema and seeing those songs and you get a basic
(05:46):
idea of Amy's life story.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And if you want the real story, see the doco.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
See the doco Amy by a Sief Carpatia. So I'm
going to give this one three stars, three stars, three
stars all for Marissa.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Else it's any carries the movie on our own, absolutely fantastic,
all right, So we're swinging by the cinema to say
it this weekend. Hey Ben, thanks a lot, say mate.
Great the flick with ben O'she The Story of Amy Winehouse,
ben O'she Is now Here to give us his verdict
on a movie about a woman who had an extraordinarily
sadly short life but such a talent, but like so
many talents, a darker story behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, absolutely extraordinary talent, extraordinary demons behind the scenes that
really played a huge role in her career, what happened
in its tragic end, And I think this film back
to black. How much you enjoy it as a fan
of Amy Winehouse and as a viewer who's maybe not
so familiar with her work will really depend on whether
(00:40):
or not you've seen a documentary by a director Asif Capatia.
He did the Center documentary, he did the Maradonna documentary,
so he's absolutely brilliant at the doccos. He did a
film about Amy Winehouse in twenty fifteen, just called Amy,
and you can stream it. And if you watch that doco,
you really get a great insight into those d demens,
into what drove her to drink and then to drugs,
(01:03):
and the people behind the scenes who didn't take enough
care of her, who thought, well, here's our cash cow.
We're going to just not send it a rehab. We're
going to not do the things that are right by
her health so she can keep making money for us.
The doco reveals that, in really unflinching detail, the film
is not like that at all. The film skates across
(01:24):
the surface. It's very superficial, and one of the reasons
is because the family is very closely involved with the film.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And so they want to maybe gloss over some of
the bits a little bit. Is it also partly in
case of, you know, wanting to reach a wider audience,
so it's not just purely for that's a partline house fans. Yeah,
we've seen this.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
We've seen this with other musical bio pics in the
past about people who had, you know, sort of troubled lives,
like where you're talking about Freddie Mercury and b I was.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Just going to say, now that's another movie that's been
accused of the of the same absolutely glossing over some
of the problems. And the challenge I think for the
filmmakers is to get the rights to use the music,
which is extremely expensive. You probably have to do a
bit of a deal with the devil. You have to
get the family, the estate, the record labels on board,
(02:13):
and that probably means you're not going to tell a
warts and old story, and that suits everybody's purposes because
then the back catalog of that particular artist rockets up
the streaming charts. Again, everybody's a winner, and the fans
are happy as well, because no one, you know, a
big fan of a band doesn't necessarily want to go
into a cinema and spend two hours being depressed watching
something that's really grim. They prefer to relive all the hits,
(02:37):
and so that's certainly what Back to Black does. With
Marissa Abella playing Amy Winehouse. She was a star of
the TV series industry, and she is phenomenal. You will
go into this movie and you will swear that you're
watching Amy Winehouse on the screen, absolutely incredible, singing all
her own songs. So there's no mining this. This is
the real deal.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But maybe maybe a couple of scenes there's a bit
of overlay of Amy Winehouse real voice, but a lot
of it she's singing herself, looks the spitting image of Amy.
It's actually uncanny the likeness. And so Marissa is amazing.
She there's no question she is an absolute gem in
this movie. It's all the other stuff around her that
I have some issues with, like in the docco and
(03:17):
people who follow Amy Winehouse's career closely know that her
dad is a problematic character in her life. In the
song Rehab. In the song Rehab, she even says, you know,
my daddy says I'm fine, I don't need to go
to rehab, when every man and his dog could see
she should have been in rehab to potentially save her life.
In the film, her dad's played by Eddie Marsan. He
(03:40):
comes off looking like a hero, like a saint.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Of course, he reasons, we just talked about it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
He's involved, that he's involved in the film and making
the film. And even Blake, her on again off again
boyfriend husband who they had an extremely fractious relationship.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
He was a drug addict.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
A lot of people blame him for getting Amy hooked
on drugs, and that's certainly depicted in the film. He's
played by Jack O'Connell, who's an amazing British actor, and
he does a great job. But again it's very sanitized
and Blake almost comes off looking like a hero as well,
saying repeatedly or Amy you know, I can't deal with
how violent you are when you're drunk. You know, I'm
(04:23):
the one who's realized this is a toxic relationship. We
can't be together.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So this is seeming like it's Amy Winehouse is the
one who's coming.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Out, Yeah, exactly, Like to me, it kind of victims.
To me, it kind of felt like the same people
who exploited her in her life are still doing it
now posthumously, And so it was a bit icky. Director
Sam Taylor Johnson directed Fifty Shades of Gray, and she's
a director who in her own way is a bit
(04:50):
problematic as well. And so there's a few things going
on with this film that anything to do with Amy
Winehouse that make it maybe a bit challenge for some viewers.
There'll be plenty of people who go along and watch
it and just happy to see Marissa Abella doing an
incredible performance, hearing all the songs which are amazing, and
you know, it tells a story from start to finish.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So is it enough though for anybody who's not a
real Amy Winehouse fan, who doesn't who didn't buy the albums,
who you know some of the songs, is it enough
of a reason to go to the cinema and see
the story of the singer's life.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I reckon it is just for the pure reason
of seeing Marissa as Amy. Like I think you know,
she is so so good it makes it worth the
price of admission. You won't teach you anything that you
probably don't already know about Amy Winehouse's life. It's so superficial.
But for her performance alone, it's worth going to the
cinema and seeing those songs and you get a basic
(05:46):
idea of Amy's life story.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And if you want the real story, see the doco.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
See the doco Amy by a Sief Carpatia. So I'm
going to give this one three stars, three stars, three
stars all for Marissa.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Else it's any carries the movie on our own, absolutely fantastic,
all right, So we're swinging by the cinema to say
it this weekend. Hey Ben, thanks a lot, say mate.
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