Film Review : AMY

AMY
Directed by Asif Kapadia



"You are only as good as the people you hang out with". We have all heard this line. The strange thing after watching this documentary is...I think she was a good person and yet the people around her were not so much.
Some weeks back on a "Monday Recommended" I recommended Good Ol Freda..the story about Freda Kelly who was in charge of the Beatles fan club and almost PR agent. When reviewing the documentary I noted there has to be someone in charge of the machine as it moves at full speed be it the Beatles (they had Freda); Rolling Stones; New Kids; Backstreet Boys; One Direction; and Taylor Swift. They all have that one thing in common, they became/become more than their music. The sad thing is...Amy Winehouse had no one to control the machine and sadly at 27 she passed away after years of alcohol and drug abuse her body just gave out.
I went in to the documentary not really knowing much about Amy. I knew a couple of her songs that is about it. In fact I felt out of touch after seeing how popular she was in the film, especially in England.

 The film is remarkable for the fact that there is so much to see. Music videos, photo sessions, concert footage, paparazzi shots, TV interviews, smart phone footage. She always seemed to be watched some how some way. Of course no one wants to take the blame for her health issues, from managers who say, "we could have slowed down if she said so". To friends who wanted to be in her presence at parties. To husbands/boyfriends (Blake Fielder-Civil) who seemed to always be pointing her in the wrong direction and no one around her stepped in. To a father who cashed in on her daughters fame. The machine had no one in charge to watch out for her.

I took away from the documentary that Amy was an overrated singer. To me most of the jazz songs seem to be all in the same tone or rhythm. However at the same time I found her to be an underrated writer where she seemed to be a Taylor Swift of that time writing about personal issues and relations. In fact it seemed like director Kapadia was also taken aback by her lyrics and made a very good decision of showing all her lyrics while she sang on the screen almost like in subtitles.

Like I noted I did not really know much about Amy going in but it left me close to tears because she seemed so overwhelmed and it is sad...you want to reach through the screen and stop the machine. I  wish there were more Andrew Morris's in her life, Andrew was her bodyguard and saw everything, the look of sadness on his face is heartbreaking at the end.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars for Amy.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.