BACK TO BLACK

Marisa Abela stars as troubled musician Amy Winehouse. From the jump, the audience is introduced to Amy's no nonsense personality. She tells you what she thinks and it's your problem on how to deal with it. Before long she meets the love of her life Blake (Jack O'Connell), whom a lot of her music was based upon. As with any musical biopic, Amy deals with fame, fortune, and addiction (the likes of which unfortunately got the better of her). I never listened to Amy's music before seeing this film (and truth be told, I didn't know much about her either other than the fact that she was the butt end of jokes back in the day). Abela did a fantastic job in her portrayal of the artist as I felt as I didn't know the real Amy, I just might through her performance. I've heard there are many people to blame for Amy's untimely death (Amy herself, her father, and Blake) and the film doesn't blame anyone per se but rather lays out the different influences in her life. Unfortunately, Amy was taken from us too soon as so many other great musicians. For me, this was a wonderful and breakout performance from Abela and I hope to see her work again soon. An average film that will probably be forgotten about soon but will stick with me a little while longer. 6/10