Film Review of the Week


Drama

Back To Black (15)




Review: Love was a losing game for Amy Winehouse. The heartache that dogged the north London-born singer’s tragically brief life was a constant source of tabloid fascination and fuelled the creative fire of her songwriting, most notably on the award-winning second LP Back To Black which lays bare the tumultuous relationship with her future husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. Winehouse’s unapologetically candid, confessional storytelling style paired with soulful vocals were irresistible. Back To Black remains the second best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK behind Adele’s 21.

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, who first collaborated on Nowhere Boy, conduct their own love affair with Winehouse in a respectful and moving biopic that keeps us – infuriatingly – at arm’s length from the demons that ultimately granted the singer membership of the 27 club alongside Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. At one point in Back To Black, Amy is asked why she lashes out and continually presses the self-destruct button. “I don’t know,” she responds.

Nor does Taylor-Johnson’s picture, which plays out scenes of alcohol abuse, violent jealousy, drug addiction and defiance with artful intoxication that feels at odds with the fiery, outspoken voice of a generation, who plainly tells her manager at the beginning of their professional relationship that she ain’t no Spice Girl. Marisa Abela’s full-blooded portrayal of Winehouse is sensational. She captures the hot-headedness and painful vulnerability of a Jewish girl, who yearned to be a mother and was frequently her own worst enemy.

“I’m not a feminist. I like boys too much,” she smiles during a mutual flirtation with Jack O’Connell’s swaggering Fielder-Civil, who introduces her to 1960s group The Shangri-Las by lip-syncing to Leader Of The Pack in a pub. Abela performs her own vocals throughout, masterfully navigating the singer’s back catalogue. She’s note perfect and always on tune, reflecting a clinical, surface-level perfection that leaves us wanting more than Taylor-Johnson’s film is willing to give.

Greenhalgh’s script covers Winehouse’s fortunes from 2002, when she signs with Island Records to the delight of manager Nick Shymansky (Sam Buchanan), father Mitch (Eddie Marsan) and beloved grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville), who she anoints her “icon”. Hordes of paparazzi stalk her topsy-turvy courtship of Fielder-Civil and she eventually agrees to attend rehab before a triumphant night at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

Back To Black demonises the photographers who hounded Winehouse and barely acknowledges any of her partners besides Fielder-Civil. Key moments such as the couple’s impulsive Miami wedding and a chaotic main stage performance at Glastonbury in 2008 are present and correct. Compared to the heartbreaking cry from the heart of Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning 2015 documentary, Taylor-Johnson’s film is an assured and muted cover version.



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Action

Civil War (15)




Review: Patriotism burns in the heat of conflict in writer-director Alex Garland’s incendiary action thriller set in a dystopian, near-future United States of America where the political landscape is no longer divided across Republican and Democratic lines. California and Texas have seceded from the union to form the so-called Western Forces. Nine states that make up the New People’s Army hold sway in the Pacific Northwest above a belt loyal to the president, which stands firm against Western Forces and a Florida Alliance comprising eight states that stretch eastwards from Oklahoma.

Garland began writing Civil War in 2020 before the acrimonious presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which culminated in an attack on the Capitol by supporters loyal to the defeated Republican candidate. Tension is palpable from the opening frames of this nightmarish road movie, which champions the vital role played by journalists on the front line. After one particularly harrowing sequence, Cailee Spaeny’s inexperienced war photographer reflects that she has never felt more scared or more alive.

Her adrenaline rush translates from the screen to the audience in terrifying, breathlessly staged battle sequences. “What kind of American are you?” one soldier (Jesse Plemons) asks a journalist, standing beside a mass grave of casualties who presumably gave an unsatisfactory response. Garland’s picture doesn’t flinch from depicting barbarity and Kirsten Dunst cuts a haunting, weary figure as the emotionally numbed war photographer in the eye of the storm. Wide shots of highways littered with abandoned cars recall 28 Days Later but the monsters here aren’t the marauding undead, they are ordinary men and women on both sides, who feel empowered to protect the country they love with lethal force.

The President (Nick Offerman) orders air strikes on his own citizens to quell pockets of resistance to authoritarian rule. Renowned war photojournalist Lee (Dunst) and journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) document the escalating conflict. “It’s not a story if it never gets filed,” sombrely observes their mentor, veteran correspondent Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who believes lives are worth more than newspaper column inches.

When rumours circulate that Western Forces intend to storm the Capitol on July 4, Lee and Joel prepare for a circuitous 857-mile trek from New York to Washington DC via Virginia. Sammy uses emotional blackmail to secure a place in the press vehicle alongside 23-year-old aspiring war photographer Jessie (Spaeny). “The back seat is both a kindergarten and an old people’s home,” curtly observes Lee.

Civil War executes its bleak premise with cool detachment, despatching characters with ruthless precision. Compelling performances from the central quartet complement razor-sharp writing. Garland allows sentimentality to flicker briefly in the heart of darkness, then promptly snuffs it out. There is no time to mourn the fallen when bullets and mortars continue to fly.



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