Movie Review: 'Back to Black' Starring Marisa Abela

Back to Black (2024)

Directed by Sam Taylor Johnson

Written by Matt Greenhalgh

Starring Marisa Abela, Jack O'Connell, Leslie Manville, Eddie Marsan

Release Date May 17th, 2024

Published May 21st, 2024

Why did director Sam Taylor Johnson want to tell this story? Is she a fan of Amy Winehouse? It's hard to say based on Johnson's new movie Back to Black. This is a nothing biopic that offers no insight on Amy Winehouse, her art, or her tragic death. The emptiness of Back to Black reminded me more of Johnson's Fifty Shades sequel than her slightly more accomplished John Lennon movie, Nowhere Boy. In that film, at the very least, we sensed that there was joy in the discovery of artistic talent and the forming of bonds that would become legendary. Back to Black carries little joy beyond playing Amy Winehouse's music. I could have gotten the same insights sitting at home next to my record player.

Back to Black opens on an odd image. Amy Winehouse, played by Marisa Abela, is running down a London Street alone. The camera is shooting down at her from overhead. If this were a male director I'd want to ask why they have decided to aim the camera in a way that centers Marisa abela's cleavage as it bounces while she runs. The odd angle is perhaps, if I were to stretch a little, a visual comment on the strange way we view celebrities, but that's a pretty big stretch. Realistically, I can't think of a good reason for this visual. It's also a piece of a scene that unfolds later in the movie, not the end, it's not a preview of the end of the movie, it's a piece from around the end of the second act. So why does the movie start with this? I can't think of a reason.

From here, we bounce back in time. A family party has Amy showing off her love of Jazz standards and a mind for memorizing classic songs that she can repeat with out accompaniment. For someone as young as Amy to have memorized songs by Jazz legends speaks not only to her influences but her talent for adapting that style into her own remarkable pop styling. This, again, is an observation I could have made from just listening to an Amy Winehouse record, but whatever, Marisa Abela sounds great and she has a big presence to her, reminiscent of Winehouse's outsized personality.

The story really kicks in when Amy Winehouse becomes famous and meets the love of her life, Blake (Jack O'Connell). Amy is hiding out at a pub to get away from managers and producers and Blake comes in for a drink. He's a gambler and he's just hit big at the track and is eager to spread his money around. He seems not to recognize Amy but it's a ploy. He eventually goes to the jukebox and starts playing one of her songs. The two play pool and flirt. What Amy doesn't know yet, but will find out soon, is that Blake has a girlfriend and a drug problem. The girlfriend is soon disposed of, for a time, but the drugs will be sticking around.

The film goes out of its way to blame Blake for Amy Winehouse's issues with drug and alcohol addiction. After he breaks up with her and she becomes an even bigger star, a scene shows Blake's drug dealer recommending that he get back together with Amy so he can use her money to buy more drugs. So he does. It's impossible to say for sure that this is what drove Blake to get Amy back but the movie is really stacking the deck to try and force the narrative that Blake is the bad guy who caused the death of Amy Winehouse. It's a bizarre, ham-fisted scene that instead of implying or suggesting Blake was a bad guy and a bad influence on Amy, the movie simply tells you he's a bad guy and a bad influence and that's just bad filmmaking.

It's also par for the course for this disposable biopic that never establishes a good reason to exist. There is nothing innovative, unique or exciting about the direction of Back to Black. The film has no emotional or intellectual insight into Amy Winehouse or what drove her creatively. The film demonstrates no reason to exist. In a world where Amy Winehouse's music is readily available and documentaries about the real Amy Winehouse exist, there is simply no reason for this movie to exist. Listen to Amy Winehouse's music, she was incredible. There is no need for this movie to tell you that.

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