There's No Film We're Dreading More in 2024 Than the Amy Winehouse Biopic

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 11, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 11, 2024 |

The first international teaser trailer for Back to Black was released today. Sam Taylor-Johnson directs this biopic about Amy Winehouse, with Marisa Abela in the lead role and support provided by Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, and Lesley Manville.

Amy Winehouse always deserved better. The singer died in 2011 at the age of 27 following many years in the spotlight where her drug dependency, eating disorder, and mental health struggles made for pure tabloid catnip. A lot of time following her passing has been dedicated to dissecting not just her incredible musical legacy but the ways that the media turned a woman’s evident pain into schadenfreude entertainment for the masses. An excellent Oscar-winning documentary, Amy, provided an excellent deep-dive into how she was mistreated and those who were, directly or otherwise, exploiting her. One of the figures that came under heavy fire from both that documentary and those who knew Amy was her father, Mitch Winehouse. He famously told her she didn’t need to go to rehab even as her friends and associates begged her to (you might be familiar with the song she wrote about it.) Mitch, who released his own album and has spent close to two decades capitalizing on his late daughter’s fame, hated that movie. So, of course, he’s thrilled about Back to Black. That’s not a good sign.

I’ll be honest here, as both a critic and an Amy Winehouse fan (I wrote a recent issue of my newsletter on her, shameless plug): I’m dreading this movie. I’m predisposed to be cynical towards biopics as it is, finding myself exhausted by brand and estate-moulded storytelling that prizes historical whitewashing and profit margins over the truth or basic narrative. Winehouse lived a complicated, troubled life that deserves to be detailed in an empathetic but honest light. Hell, we already got that story with Amy, which contextualized her music and life with detail and a sharp eye toward those who had hurt her. You know, like her dad.

A biopic about her made with the involvement of Mitch Winehouse will not be told with Amy’s best interests at heart. An estate-authorized biopic made by one of Amy’s own friends may want to be kind to her, but I imagine Mitch will get some of that residual glow too. He’s certainly enjoying banking on her fame. Only recently, I got a press release about new Amy Winehouse Funko Pops.

The trailer is standard biopic stuff. Abela certainly has the look but the speaking voice is off. This is more a teaser than anything else so it doesn’t get into stuff like her marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil or her drug use. I question how her addictions will be portrayed. Will Mitch be the angel on her shoulder while her husband is the evil druggie who got her hooked on heroin? Will Mitch suddenly find another unreleased recording by Amy to shove onto a soundtrack he can sell? Will this revive his interest in a f*cking Amy hologram tour?!

Amy deserves better.

First poster for the Amy Winehouse biopic ‘BACK TO BLACK’.

In theaters on May 10. pic.twitter.com/3n7q5pPnIl

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 11, 2024

Back to Black will be released in the UK on April 12th and in America on May 10th.