Back to backlash: is Amy Winehouse biopic trashing her legacy?

Critics are accusing filmmakers of cashing in on Amy Winehouse with a new biopic that comes just 13 years after her death from alcohol-poisoning at the age of 27. 

Named after the title track of her 2007 album, "Back to Black" stars Marisa Abela as Winehouse and is expected to chronicle the singer-songwriter's rise to stardom, tumultuous marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell), and battles with addictions. Fans claim the film, out next week, comes too soon – and a preview clip of Abela covering her debut single "Stronger Than Me" has triggered further criticism.

Abela's performance "isn’t Winehouse-y enough", said Tanya Sweeney in the Irish Independent, and is a "major affront" to the late musician's life and career.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Motivated by greed'

"It's not just Abela’s abhorrent cover that besmirches Winehouse’s legacy," said The Daily Beast's Coleman Spilde. It’s also "the content of the clip itself, which speeds through time and barely gives us a sense of Winehouse’s character". The signs are that the biopic is "another attempt" to "leech cash out of someone who fended off bloodsuckers for her entire career".

Given the "vulture-like efficiency" with which Winehouse's life was "picked over", said Roisin O'Connor in The Independent, it's "near-impossible to think of a sincere reason" to make a film about her. Or "at least not one that isn't motivated by greed".

'Near-impossible task'

The biopic's director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, has strenuously denied that the film is exploitative, insisting that “we’ve made it through Amy’s words, music, her perspective", and it "joyfully honours" her. "Anything else would, yes, have been exploitative, but this retelling lacks tragic hindsight,” Taylor-Johnson told The Sunday Times.

But the backlash hints at a new standard for big-screen biopics in general. For many viewers, "mere mimicry no longer cuts the mustard", said Sweeney in the Irish Independent. Actors "need to be able to fully channel the famous person they are pretending to be", but Winehouse's look and "vibe" was "singular". 

Abela faced a "near-impossible task" and making a Winehouse biopic was "always going to be a risky strategy".