‘Back To Black’ review: Marisa Abela makes a worthy Amy Winehouse

Though Amy Winehouse‘s music was rooted in ’50s jazz and ’60s girl-groups like The Shangri-Las, she was also an artist ahead of her time. Long before everyone began stressing their ‘authentic’ and ‘unapologetic’ qualities, Winehouse really was an unfiltered breath of fresh air. When a hapless interviewer tried to compare her to Dido, Winehouse could barely hide her disdain – and TikTok still can’t get enough of it 20 years later.

But the trouble with playing someone as distinctive and idiosyncratic as Winehouse, who died of accidental alcohol poisoning in July 2011, is that it’s easy to appear mannered. For the first few minutes of this biopic, actress Marisa Abela looks like she might fall into that trap. An early scene in which a teenage Amy sings for her family at their north London home is a bit stilted and reminiscent of a cheap British TV movie.

Thankfully, she (and Back To Black) quickly find a compelling groove. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson, whose previous credits include 2015’s Fifty Shades Of Grey, but also 2009’s excellent John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, confidently tracks the singer’s rise from Southgate to Ronnie Scott’s, then Camden to the Grammys. Scenes set at The Good Mixer, the grungy pub where Winehouse meets future husband Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O’Connell), are particularly evocative. There’s also a genuinely hilarious moment where Winehouse is appalled to be compared to sappy singer Katie Melua.

Abela, so good in banking drama Industry, captures Winehouse’s fascinating mix of self-belief and frailty. She also takes on her songs, pretty remarkably, instead of lip-syncing to the familiar versions of ‘Valerie’, ‘Rehab’ and ‘Stronger Than Me’. Most affecting are her scenes with Winehouse’s grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville), whom the singer adored and celebrated with her retro dress sense. Winehouse’s mother Janis (Juliet Cowan) also gets some screen time, but is left a bit undeveloped as a character.

Amy’s less shy and retiring father Mitch (Eddie Marsan) is presented more sympathetically than in Amy, Asif Kapadia’s revealing 2015 documentary film. Fielder-Civil, meanwhile, is more flawed chancer than evil schemer here. If Back To Black has a villain, it’s the unrelenting glare of the media spotlight, which made life even more intense and unbearable for a woman already struggling with addiction, bulimia, grief and fame. This film was always going to face accusations of being exploitative – given the way Winehouse was scrutinised when she was alive – but the naysayers needn’t have worried. Taylor-Johnson’s film (particularly the ending) is impressively deft and delicate.

Obviously, it was going to be tough for Back To Black to surpass Winehouse’s 2006 album of the same name – what could? – but Taylor-Johnson’s film is more than deserving of your time. It offers a welcome reminder of Winehouse’s plucky spirit – something that often gets lost when her life is reduced to a hackneyed tale of talent and tragedy. There’s also a cracking score by Bad Seeds Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – complete with an original tune by Cave, ‘Song For Amy’, which unfurls beautifully over the opening credits. “You say that it’s time for us to call it a day,” he sings huskily over twinkly wind chimes and elegant strings, “but I will love you anyway.” It serves as a moving bookend to a worthy biopic – and you’ll come away wanting to take a deeper dive into the remarkable artist that inspired it.

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