Amy (2015)

Archival footage and personal testimonials present an intimate portrait of the life and career of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.

Director:

Asif Kapadia

Stars:

Amy Winehouse, Mitch Winehouse, Mark Ronson

Won 1 Oscar. Another 50 wins & 48 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Amy Winehouse	...	Self (archive footage)
Lauren Gilbert	...	Self
Juliette Ashby	...	Self
Nick Shymansky	...	Self
Tyler James	...	Self
Guy Moot	...	Self
Chris Taylor	...	Self (archive footage)
Nick Gatfield	...	Self
Ian Barter	...	Self (archive footage)
Garry Mulholland	...	Self (archive footage)
Jonathan Ross	...	Self (archive footage)
Janis Collins	...	Self (as Janis Winehouse)
Mitch Winehouse	...	Self (as Mitchell Winehouse)
Sam Beste	...	Self
Bobby Womack	...	Self (archive footage)

Storyline

A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.

---

Plot Keywords:

drugs | montage | soul music | absent father | pot smoking | 

---

Taglines:

Experience the untold story of the girl behind the name.

---

Genres:

Documentary | Biography | Music

---

Certificate:

R16

Did You Know?

Trivia

First documentary distributed by A24 to be nominated for an Oscar.

---

Goofs

Instead of putting Amy's Belgrade concert, filmmakers made mistake and the big zoom out was concert of Jelena Karleusa, Serbian pop/folk singer and not Amy's.

---

Quotes

Amy Winehouse: I don't think I'm going to be at all famous. I don't think I could handle it. I'd probably go mad, do you know what I mean? I would go mad.

---

Connections

References Cool Hand Luke (1967)

---

Soundtracks

I'm Alive
Written by Antonio Pinto
Performed by Antonio Pinto
Published by Atlantic Screen Composers Ltd, administered by Copyright Administration Services Ltd
Licensed courtesy of Metropolis Movie Music

User Reviews

Back to Black

I saw this at the NXNE festival in Toronto last night. The movie was quite long, I must admit I was exhausted when I left. Not in a negative way, but overwhelmed at everything I had seen. The director had a lot of material to give us and he didn't hold back. The scene that I found the most powerful was the one in the recording studio with Tony Bennett, it was pure magic. I can't say that I followed Amy Winehouse, or was very familiar with her work, other than the song 'Rehab'. I did love her hairdo, it reminded me of the Ronettes. I am always fascinated by artists and how they develop.

We get a close up of Amy's artistic process. Her power was in her ability to constantly come up with song material that resonated with her at the deepest level and put those words to music. Combine this with a unaffected personality and an amazing ability to connect with an audience and you have a true force of nature. On the negative side, she had to deal with her personal daemons from her childhood. The tragedy was her use of drugs and alcohol. One gets the feeling from the movie of an almost inevitability of her path, but I guess that is always debatable.

Details

Official Sites:

A24 [United States] Altitude [United Kingdom]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 July 2015 (UK)

Also Known As:

Amy

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$222,500, 5 July 2015

Gross USA:

$8,413,144

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$23,706,386

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film4, On the Corner Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1