'Back To Black' Review - A Biopic That Misses The Mark With Fans And Casuals (2024)

FAQs

'Back To Black' Review - A Biopic That Misses The Mark With Fans And Casuals? ›

Another major flaw is Back to Black was trying to tell about the lowest points in the life of Amy Winehouse without having the film go to a complete drag, which means that the film admittedly omits more than one disturbing detail about her life. The storytelling of this movie is very vanilla.

In the case of Back to Black, though, the depiction of Winehouse rings both false and strikingly convenient for the people who were involved in her life. As Jason P. Frank and Rebecca Alter write in Vulture, the film spends too much time “trying to reclaim her as wholesome,” against the tabloids' vilifying coverage.

Critics Reviews

This papering over of Winehouse and her story isn't just bland and boring — it's offensive. Content collapsed. Much like the rabid tabloid coverage Winehouse faced, Back to Black is a lazy attempt to capitalize on both the success and struggles of a great artist.

That said, most of the major events depicted in the film are true, and indeed several of Winehouse's most iconic live performances – and a famous early interview with Jonathan Ross – are recreated faithfully.

Singer Amy Winehouse's tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil inspires her to write and record the groundbreaking album "Back to Black."

Back to Black / Film synopsis

Early comments criticized Abela's appearance while wearing Winehouse's signature beehive and heavy eye makeup, both of which are messy during a scene on the street. Fans called it "revolting" and claimed the movie was exploiting and sensationalizing her story, per the BBC.

The exploitatively inaccurate conclusion of Back to Black gets several facts wrong. In reality, Amy had been dating a man named Reg Traviss for one year by the time she was sober in her new Camden home. Furthermore, Blake's baby was not born until May 2011, two months before Amy died of alcohol poisoning in July 2011.

“Blake has seen the film and loves it. He said some really very moving words and his feedback has been beyond my expectation,” O'Connell shares. “I won't delve too much into our private conversation, as I don't want to speak out of turn, but his review was massively important. “

Back to Black depicts Winehouse and Fielder-Civil's first meeting almost exactly as it happened. According to an interview with the Daily Mail, Fielder-Civil arrived at the Good Mixer, a pub in London's Camden neighborhood after a big gambling win and Winehouse was the first person he saw there.

The Mail quotes the biopic's producers who explained: “The character of Mark Ronson has never appeared on screen in the film, so it would not have been possible to 'cut all the scenes' involving Mark Ronson as they do not exist.”

Is Back to Black worth watching? ›

Back to Black is a fitfully enjoyable little package that will do wonders for the careers of Abela and O'Connell. But unlike Winehouse's oeuvre, it's not worth taking seriously. It's just too afraid of the dark. Dir: Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Since her death

Though Fielder-Civil continued to struggle with his own drug addiction following Winehouse's death, he revealed in April on “Good Morning Britain” that he's been “clean for years.”

Indeed, in an interview with MTV, Winehouse admitted that “My tooth got knocked out, that's true,” adding, “I bit down on an ice cube and felt it come loose. I was sitting with my boyfriend and told him he had to pull it out because it was going to come out at some point and would be horrible and bloody.

Box office. As of 17 July 2024, Back to Black has grossed $6.2 million in the United States and Canada and $44.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $51.1 million. Back to Black debuted at number one in the UK and Ireland with £2.77 million ($3.4 million), ahead of Civil War.

Works great! I used this to re-dye my black jeans. The product was phenomenal, my jeans look like new!

The new "Back to Black" film, which walks the line between a biopic and a dramatic retelling of Winehouse's relationship with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, failed to capture the same Amy the world has missed since her death, due to accidental alcohol poisoning, in 2011 at 27 years old.

“Blake has seen the film and loves it. He said some really very moving words and his feedback has been beyond my expectation,” O'Connell shares. “I won't delve too much into our private conversation, as I don't want to speak out of turn, but his review was massively important. “