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 2006 album, "Back to Black," it stars Marisa Abela (pictured above) 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.Â
Fans claim the film, out May 17, comes too soon — and a preview clip of Abela covering Winehouse’s debut single, "Stronger Than Me," has triggered further criticism. For die-hard fans, 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.Â
'Motivated by greed'Â "It's not just Abela's abhorrent cover that besmirches Winehouse's legacy," said Coleman Spilde at The Daily Beast. 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."
'Singular vibe'Â 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 honors" her. "Anything else would, yes, have been exploitative, but this retelling lacks tragic hindsight," Taylor-Johnson told The Sunday Times.Â
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." |