Top 10 Things Back to Black Got Factually Right & Wrong

Music biopics attempt to immerse the viewer in the world of the artist, creating the atmosphere of a specific time and place. We’ve since become familiar with fifties Memphis and sixties Motown, but “Back to Black” feels closer to home. It’s weird to think of a movie set in the aughts as a period piece, but that’s exactly what this is. During her own era, Amy Winehouse’s music went against the grain, but she was still a noughties girl, and the fashions and feel of the decade are faithfully recreated in the film. From the Camden pubs to Amy’s family home, the Lacoste T-shirts to the beat-up ballet pumps, you can practically smell the 2000s. Many of Amy’s outfits and interviews are also instantly recognizable.

Even if you’ve never watched an Amy Winehouse interview, or seen a performance, you’ve probably heard her iconic voice. But you won’t hear it in this movie. Lead actress Marisa Abela does all her own singing, and there’s no doubt she does a good job despite not perfectly sounding like Winehouse. Nevertheless, the choice has divided viewers. While “Elvis” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” blended the vocals of the actors and the original artists, “Rocketman” and “Walk the Line” had the actors do all the singing themselves. Every biopic does it differently, but director Sam Taylor-Johnson says using Abela’s vocals was all about bringing an emotional authenticity to the performance. Still, it would have been nice to hear some of the real Amy, at least during the credits.

While the voice may be different, many of Winehouse’s memorable performances make up
key moments in “Back to Black.” We see depictions of her early shows as well as major cultural moments like Glastonbury and the Grammys. The outfits, the locations and the music will strike a chord for fans of the star - or anyone who lived through the era. Abela even sings alongside Amy’s real-life band. Although the film focuses more on the artist’s personal life than her musical journey, it’s also a story told through her songs, with the narrative beats picked out from Amy’s own lyrics. From “Stronger than Me” to “Rehab,” a story has been crafted around her emotional life, but it’s the music that sells it.

We’d love an Amy Winehouse film that celebrates her talent and charisma alone, but in telling the story of her short life, it’s hard to ignore her public persona. From Winehouse’s very first taste of success, the press attention began - and the paparazzi are a tangible presence in this film. The media culture of the 2000s was not kind and Winehouse was one of the tabloids’ favorite victims, especially once her alcohol and substance use disorders began to take hold. The press emerge as one of the villains of the piece, relentlessly hounding the star and publicizing her worst moments to the world, often turning her into a figure of ridicule. It’s painful to watch, especially with the knowledge of how it all ended.

With multiple documentaries that already tell her story - including 2015’s award-winning “Amy” - many of us will already have formed opinions on Amy Winehouse's life and the people in it. “Back to Black” includes some key characters, while others are excluded or presented in a different light. Rightly or wrongly, Amy’s father, Mitch, gets a sympathetic portrayal here. Her mother and brother are only briefly seen or mentioned while some of her closest friends, and flatmates are completely absent. Whether this is for narrative purposes, or at the request of the people concerned, you feel the gaps. Like with most true-life stories, you’ll need to do some research of your own to help fill them in.

One family relationship that “Back to Black” does well is Amy’s close bond with her paternal Grandmother. Cynthia’s style and musical taste were an inspiration to her granddaughter. Some of the movie’s best and most moving moments are between Amy and her Nan, whether sharing stories around the kitchen table, working on a new look, or breaking bad news. Abela and Lesley Manville bring a warmth and chemistry to their scenes together, making the end of their story genuinely affecting. Cynthia saw the beginnings of Amy’s success, but not its tragic end. The grandmother and granddaughter are buried together.

Aside from Cynthia, the most prominent character in Amy’s story - at least in “Back to Black” is her ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh wanted to tell the story through Amy’s eyes, and during that point in her life, Blake was a huge presence. As depicted in the film, the pair met in a Camden pub in 2005 and very quickly became an item. It’s pitched as a fun, romantic scene, intended to help the audience to understand why Amy might have fallen for Fielder-Civil in the first place. However, during their early moments we also get a taste of the trouble to come, as we meet Blake’s girlfriend and witness him taking illegal substances.

“Back to Black” paints Amy’s battle with alcohol and substance use disorder in broad strokes, but fails to show the full extent of her struggles. We see one thwarted attempt to get her into rehab, but not the many that came after. The film shows Amy slipping into hard drug use, but leaves out the crowd of fellow users and hangers-on who enabled it. Neither do they show that Blake introduced her to specific illegal substances. We’re barely witness to the disordered eating that began in her teens and left her body weakened. And although we see the beginnings of her rehabilitation, we’re not shown how she was pushed back out on the road when she was on the verge of real recovery.

Despite “Back to Black’s” many flaws, one thing that does shine through is Amy’s sense of humor. The artist’s early interviews reveal her to be intelligent, engaging and funny, with a lot of charisma and very little filter. The film doesn’t dedicate nearly enough time to Winehouse’s talent and artistry - but it does convey something of her character. Marisa Abela’s central performance is a highlight of the film. She captures Amy’s mannerisms and her style of speaking, as well as something of her forthright humor and sense of fun. The tragedy and vulnerability is played with equal skill, but it’s the joyful side of the character that gives the later scenes a real pathos.

“Back to Black” is a fictional movie, not a documentary. But maybe it’s because it feels so recent, that the romanticisation of Amy Winehouse’s ex-husband feels so uncomfortable. The film reduces much of Amy’s life and struggles to her love for Blake and her longing to have their children. They leave out her later boyfriends and suggest that Blake divorced her so they could be free. It is even implied that she fatally relapsed after learning he was having a baby with someone else. Fielder-Civil has admitted to the toxicity of the relationship, and that maybe he wasn’t an out and out villain, just another victim of substance use disorder. However, he’s definitely not Prince Charming and the film’s take occasionally feels like it’s rewriting history.

Have you seen “Back to Black?” What did you think? Let us know in the comments.