Back to Black

A stretch of Amy Winehouse's life from her early career through her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, the Grammy-winning album and her struggle with addiction. It closes on a note recording that she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of twenty-seven. Sam Taylor-Johnson directed. Marisa Abela plays Winehouse, with Jack O'Connell as Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as her father and Lesley Manville as her grandmother. It opened in the UK in April 2024 and in the US that May. Abela's performance was the most positive part of the response; one critic wrote that she does her own singing in an amazing re-creation of Winehouse's muscular soul vocals. The general reception was cold. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 35 percent, the consensus saying the end results are disappointingly pedestrian. The criticism centred on how Blake Fielder-Civil and Mitch Winehouse are portrayed; one reviewer wrote that the film tiptoes around judging anyone who isn't part of the paparazzi. It grossed 51 million dollars worldwide, with a US opening weekend of only 2.9 million. Who it is for: people who love Winehouse's music and are curious about Abela's performance. Who it is not for: anyone who has seen the 2015 documentary Amy. That film tells the same life far harder and with far less protection.