Review | Amy

The release of the documentary movie Amy, an insight into the life of Amy Winehouse, has been a little controversial to say the least. With many people flocking to see the film as her dad, Mitch Winehouse, and boyfriend at the time of her death, Reg Traviss, are already planning to release their own film as they believe that the film is a false portrayal of the family and contains many inaccuracies and have key moments and issues missing within the film.

After going to see the film, at the Glasgow Film Theatre, on Sunday I felt the need to write about how harrowing I found the film and give my opinion on the film which, at points, made my cry for a lost girl who just wanted to write and make music.

The first thing that is so clear in the movie from the very start is that Amy never wrote music to become famous or achieve awards, she wrote music as an outlet to try and heal herself. All of her songs were incredibly personal and reflected were she was in her life and what she was going through. She used her music as a way to express how she felt.

What is also clear in the film is that Amy’s relationship with her father was hard to watch as it played out in the film. Amy openly discusses that her fathers absenteeism and her parents separation when she was nine majorly impacted her life. It is clear in the film how much her fathers opinion and advice is the one she values most. When her ex-manager and friends first see her falling down the “troubled track” (as she called it) and want to send her to rehab, her dad intervenes saying that she doesn’t need to go. Whether this is his callous attitude or self-denial of his daughters issues is unclear. Amy’s dads encouragement for her not to go to rehab ironically lead to her hit song ‘Rehab’, which throw her into the limelight and started the press’s obsession with her life.

The saddest moment in the whole film, and the one that shows just how hard Amy found battling her demons, was when Amy final got clean and won 5 Grammy Awards. As her childhood friend congratulates and gushes about how proud she is, Amy simply replies “This is boring without drugs”.

It is hard not to feel for Amy in the film. It is so clear that she is a lost girl who keeps being forced to perform and has to deal with the constant intrusion of the press and public who grow to be obsessed with her. Amy repeatedly says she wants to get better and get help, however these pleas are ignored as her dad turns up in Barbados with a TV crew she clearly doesn’t want to be there or when she is taken to the airport asleep and unaware of what or where she was being taken. Amy used alcohol and drugs to escape from a reality pushed upon her where the world was obsessed with every move she made. It is a shame that she felt this was her only option.

Have you seen the film Amy, What was your opinion on the film?