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‘Back To Black’ Review: A Refreshingly Honest Look At The Short, Troubled Life Of Amy Winehouse

‘Back To Black’ review: A refreshingly honest look at the short, troubled life of Amy Winehouse

Although there is a LOT of foreshadowing in Matt Greenhalgh’s script (when her beloved Nan refuses a cigarette, you know exactly what’s coming), this isn’t a retread of Asif Kapadia’s almost forensic documentary Amy, which turned the tables on the accepted narrative of Winehouse as willing tabloid fodder. In those moments, we get a sense of Amy Winehouse on the rise, a superhero origins story in which certain elements coalesce to produce the elegantly surly, coifed and tatted icon represented on the poster (although the film hedges its bets as to whether the famous beehive was inspired by The Shangri-Las’ Mary Weiss or The Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector). Title: Back To Black Distributor: Focus Features Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson Screenwriter: Matt Greenhalgh Cast: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville Rating: R Running time: 2 hr 2 min

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