Amy Winehouse film: what it reveals about her life and death

A new documentary about the life of singer Amy Winehouse, which arrives in cinemas this weekend, has been praised as "brilliant" and "remarkable" by many critics, while others have have complained that it offers few new insights.

Amy is an intimate profile of the late British singer-songwriter, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27. It is directed by Asif Kapadia, who won acclaim for his earlier documentary, Senna, about the life of racing car driver Ayrton Senna.

Kapadia has interviewed Winehouse's friends, relatives and colleagues for the film and dubs their recollections over assembled footage from television archives, and rarely seen home videos.

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Critics have praised Kapadia's compassion for his subject.

"There is an unutterable sadness at the heart of Asif Kapadia's brilliant new film," says Geoffrey MacNab in The Independent. MacNab notes that Amy's father Mitch Winehouse has criticised the film for misrepresenting his role in his daughter's life, but MacNab argues that Kapadia isn't out to "demonise" Mitch.

MacNab says one of the great strengths of Amy is that "it doesn't indulge in simple-minded accusations". Instead, Kapadia's film "is steeped in regret and grief over what became of its subject and yet it never loses its sense of awe about what she achieved".

Nevertheless there are some damning revelations in this "unflinching portrait", says Ramin Setoodeh in Variety. Among them are the details that Amy suffered from adolescent depression and anorexia, which was exacerbated by her parents' divorce; her father missed a key opportunity to help his daughter stop using drugs and alcohol; and the suggestion that Mitch cashed in on her fame.

Mitch has branded the makers a "disgrace" and is reportedly working on a separate documentary to address what he calls "misleading" details in the film.

It also reveals that the Daily Mail published Winehouse's most intimate conversations about her addiction, which prompts one of her friends to suggest that the paper may have been hacking her phone.

Yes, the film "doesn't stint on tidbits that will appeal to those of us who consider the Daily Mail a guilty pleasure", says Richard Portman on the Daily Beast.

Still, says Portman, "Kapadia's biggest achievement lies in creating considerable empathy for a woman who had become, by the end of her life, the cruel butt of jokes told by smirking late-night comics".

More than that, says Jada Yuan on Vulture, the film raises the question of whether this vulnerable woman would have been hounded by the media so much "if we, the public, weren't hungry to witness her destruction".

It's heartbreaking, admits Nicholas Barber on the BBC, but hardly enlightening. It's not just that Winehouse's own troubles are so well-chronicled, says Barber, it's more that we've heard about so many other celebrities being torn apart by drink and drugs, mercenary Svengalis, the predatory media, the pressures of fame.

It's hardly Kapadia's fault that she walked down such a well-worn path, says Barber, but every self-destructive step Winehouse takes in the film "is one that someone else has taken before".