- New Amy Winehouse movie most anticipated of the year
- Back to Black fans who had a sneak peak have split opinions
- The biopic – starring Marisa Abela as the Tears Dry On Their Own songstress – details the life Amy Winehouse
It’s the much-anticipated movie of the year.
But as Back to Black prepares to hit theaters, fans who have already had a sneak peak of the film have proven that it has split opinion.
The biopic – directed by British director Sam Taylor-Johnson – details the life of the late singer Amy Winehouse, who tragically passed away from alcohol poisoning in 2011, aged just 27 years old.
Starring newcomer Marisa Abela as the Tears Dry On Their Own songstress, the cast also includes actor Jack O’Connell as her husband Blake Fielder-Civil – who Winehouse had a turbulent relationship with for six years and inspired much of her Grammy-award winning 2006 album, Back to Black – and Eddie Marsan, who plays her father, Mitch Winehouse.
And while some are praising the movie as “a real celebration of a London icon”, others are slating the effort – saying it is about to be “universally and passionately hated”.
“Oh is the Back to Black social embargo up?” Evil film!!!! Morally repugnant!!” one passionate viewer tweeted. “Not even in a bad way that is interesting or entertaining, just sad and anger-inducing from start to finish!!!”
“Maybe being dramatic on my part, but genuinely hoping this doesn’t blemish Abela’s career this early bc this film sounds like it’s about to be universally and passionately hated lol,” added another.
Sharing a clip of Winehouse and her father from the 2015 documentary Amy – which shows Mitch berating his daughter for not willingly engaging in photo opportunities with fans, as the voiceover says how she “just wanted her dad” but the former taxi driver also “came with cameras and audio guys” – someone else commented, “Y’all should boycott that Amy Winehouse biopic and the video is your answer WHY. Amy’s father is involved in making Back to Black movie and I’m 100% he will be portrayed as this good and supportive father, while in fact he was pulling s*** like that. Amy was P***ED.”
Last weekend, Taylor-Johnson, 57, gave an interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper and explained her reasoning for depicting Winehouse and Fielder-Civil’s story in the film.
“Amy loved him,” she said, “And we’re seeing him through her eyes. Whether we judge him for what’s right or wrong is a separate issue.”
She added, “I couldn’t present Blake as someone twisted, tortured. He had to be somebody who we as an audience understood and loved.”
O’Connell, 33, also defended his reasoning for portraying Fielder-Civil in the way shown on-screen.
“Sam didn’t want to make a biopic on Amy Winehouse which is objective and beat by beat and whatnot,” he explained to London’s Evening Standard newspaper. This is a reimagination, and it is fictitious – we’re being guided by her lyrics. And where Blake exists in her lyrics. We’re not trying to say, ‘Look, this is what happened and this is how it happened.’ It’s not historically factual in that way.”
