Here's the funny thing though. Amy isn't like other documentaries.
Because Amy wasn't like other people.
I have to compare the movie to her music, because there's no other way to really approach this in my mind.
Amy Winehouse was unusual, at the very least she was unusual for a person with her specific skill set. She had the voice of old American jazz, the type of talent you found in smoky dive joints circa the 1940's. There was something elegant about her sound, there was a quality to her performance that you couldn't recreate. Something you couldn't touch. You could only listen.
At the same time, there was something informal about it. Something down to earth, and honest. She'd rip at the faults in her own thinking, she'd compose beautiful melodies and sophisticated sounds only to compliment the dark and the ironic in her lyrics. You have to listen a little closer, but once you do, you'll find the cracks and the scars that made that woman who she was.
Amy wasn't just blues, she wasn't just jazz, she wasn't just pop. Amy was Amy, and whatever that meant in the particular moment she wrote a song would inform the sound.
Now Amy the movie reflects that in the most sincere of ways.
It isn't a perfect documentary, it isn't the best one I've ever seen, but it never needed to be. If I was watching that movie to see a movie, maybe I'd be a little disappointed by it. However I wasn't watching that movie to see a film. I was watching it to see Amy.
That's an important distinction to remember.
For the director, Asif Kapadia, to step aside and let the story truly be Amy's was admirable. It was also a risk. Clearly (as of the documentary's 2016 Oscar win), it paid off.
It's a beautiful and refreshing thing. To see, for once, a documentary that isn't about the famous people that are reminiscing about the deceased, or the exes who remember the late star fondly. You don't even see the interviewees' faces during Amy, only occasionally in archival footage. Instead, Kapadia opts to play the audio of his interviews with the important people in Amy's life over footage of Amy herself, throughout the stages of her ascent. I'll admit I was, at first, discouraged by this creative choice, but it didn't take long for me to realize that there really was no other way for it to be done.
Here is where I feel Amy the film, and Amy's music, are truly similar. Under the craft, and the expertise, there is something raw and honest. You have to be willing to watch and listen, but once you are, you'll see what the movie is really trying to tell you.
There will never be another Amy Winehouse.
And at no point does someone have to look at the camera and tell you, "THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER WOMAN LIKE AMY."
Because you just sort of get it. At least you should, as long as you do what I said, and listen.
An Amy Winehouse song is something beautiful with something troubled inside, much like the film that shares her name, and much like the person herself.
I wanted this piece to be more of a review of the movie, but I have Amy Winehouse's album Frank playing in my room right now, and this is someone whose music has been a part of my life for a long long time, so naturally this is evolving into a discussion of just how much I appreciate Amy the person.
I know I said that watching this movie was hard, and it was, for obvious reasons. However the take away here isn't that the whole thing is sad and dreary. In fact it is just the opposite. It is seeing Amy laugh and dance and create that is so hard. Seeing her happy is really what's difficult. Because somewhere way in the back of your head, you know how the story ends.
She was fucking hilarious by the way. If I walked away from this movie with any new information about her, it was that she had a wit you don't see everyday. There was one exchange later in the film between Amy and her best friend, Juliette, that left me in stitches. None of it was scripted, she was just that fucking funny. If you're wondering what scene to look out for, it's the scene where Amy gives Juliette the tour of her new home.
That wit extended from her interactions with the people in her life to her music. Next time you're listening to Amy, pull up the lyrics to the songs as you listen. It's the kind of wordplay you'd expect in hip hop or spoken word, and it lends just the kind of insight into her life and thought-process that the documentary does.
Ok Frank just ended, time to put on Back to Black and finish this post.
The tragedy in Amy's story is apparent. It's just obvious. Here is someone with talent abundant enough to change music forever, someone with real problems, and real fears, and just when she was at her lowest low, and trying to get better, we made a cartoon out of her.
The hard-drinking, potty-mouthed diva became a character, and all of a sudden it was ok to make fun of her. It was socially acceptable to blame her for things she had no control over, and to mock a woman who only wanted to give us good music. People like to say that "fame" killed Amy Winehouse. I don't buy that, and if the documentary is any indication, Kapadia doesn't believe that either. Fame can't kill, it's not a disease, it isn't tangible, it has no physical form. People killed Amy Winehouse. The same people who turned around and mourned her when she passed. The same people who will profess years after her death that she was a special talent, and that it really is sad she was on drugs, and unwell.
I don't want to dwell on that event. Death is final, and abrupt. Life is what we should discuss, and remember. Kapadia understands that. With this movie, he devotes a mere two to three minutes to Amy's death, but over two hours to the life that she lived. Some of you will think that the documentary comes to a sudden, unsatisfying end. Well so did Amy Winehouse.
Do I think this film deserved the Oscar that it won? On the one hand, absolutely. It is a sincere celebration of the woman, the myth, the legend that was Amy. It brings her back down to planet earth, after so many people proceeded to make her into something she wasn't. Whether it was a caricature, or a deity, fans and critics alike lost sight of the fact that Amy Winehouse, from start to finish, was a person. She never tried or wanted to be anything else.On the other hand, I could care less about this movie winning that particular award. To me, the Oscar doesn't give this documentary any more merit than it's already earned on its own. If you watch this movie, watch it for Amy, not for the awards that it won. I promise you, whether you know all there is to know about her, or nothing at all, you will walk away from this film with something. I can't tell you what that something will be, but whatever it is, it'll be special.
In terms of the more technical stuff, I have only this to say: Nothing this movie does in terms of editing or effects will stand out to you. The most noticeable aspect is probably the fact that none of the interviewees are seen, only their voices are heard. Apart from that, the focus is Amy, and rightfully so. I think the title of the documentary really speaks for itself, in the sense that without Amy, there is no film.
I'm sad. I'm really really sad, but I know that I shouldn't be. The sadness is a byproduct of bad things happening, and it won't get me anywhere creatively. Amy inspires me because she took the sadness she felt, she took the bad things that happened, and she used them. She made them into something positive, like good lines, or great songs. That's what I need to take away. I can't ever detach myself from what I do. I can't make a movie without being the person who made it, it just doesn't work that way. There is no way to leave behind whatever baggage comes along with being the person that I am. So I might as well take that baggage, take those bad things, that sadness that I can't shake, and make it into something good.
Amy, the film, is something good. You should watch it when you get the chance.
Thanks for reading.
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