Back to Black

 

“🎶 We only said goodbye with words, I died a hundred times. You go back to her and I go back to black 🎶”

Tragic, empathetic and sorrowful, Back to Black is a heart wrenching tribute to the beauty and brokenness of Amy Winehouse  that doesn’t pull its punches when detailing her demons, but also seeks to sympathise with her struggles so as to not exploit her hardships, but rather immortalise her triumphs amidst her untimely tragedy. 

Discussion Points:

Amy Winehouse was terrorised and exploited by the tabloids, but Back to Black thankfully doesn’t indulge in unnecessary trauma porn. It instead seeks to empathetically focus on Winehouse and her struggles and triumphs. Some may accuse it of censoring or sanitising the darkest corners of Winehouse’s demons, but had the film depicted them, it wouldn’t’ve been able to thread the fine line of empathy and sympathy that lies at its core. This is truly a loving tribute to Winehouse, her talent, her music, her style, her drive. Whilst you can’t remove the tragedy that is so central to her story, the film instead focuses on her rise and her successes, as much as her troubles. Marisa Abela is phenomenal, capturing the pain and passion that Winehouse emanated and embodying her youth, her confidence and her authenticity. As far as music biopics go, it still features many of the genre’s usual trappings, but it doesn’t feel nearly as formulaic as I was expecting, and refreshingly doesn’t just feel like a Wikipedia article speedrun. Overall, whilst maybe not as in-depth or uncompromising as other works about Winehouse, Back to Black is a tribute first, and tragedy second.