MovieChat Forums > Back to Black (2024) Discussion > Did the best it could with an entirely u...

Did the best it could with an entirely unlikable main character.

posted 24 days ago by katiemelualover (168)
21 replies | jump to latest

Lets be honest here. Amy simply wasnt a likable person in life, which made it a really hard task to create a film with her in the lead.

And Im not just salty because she trashed Katie Melua. The simple fact is nobody will ever make a film about Katie Melua, but IF they did, she'd be a likable hero. She has friends, people who care about her in her life, and a healthy relationship.

Amy was a psychopath that treated everybody in her life like garbage. She also couldnt pair bond. Hence her love of blake was really a love of the drug's they'd do together, and also why she was sleeping with someone else as soon as he got locked up(although she did visit him while cheating...good wife).

[–] Keelai (32515) 24 days ago

I read that she had mental illness. Drugs and drink were likely self-medicating.

I'd prefer to just watch a documentary or read a book about her.
https://people.com/amy-winehouse-family-shares-rare-photos-and-handwritten-notes-in-new-book-exclusive-7693094

[–] Tina (383) 24 days ago

I really do not see what the big deal was about Amy Winehouse. Her voice was unique but she was never really going to be like Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Cher or any of the other legendary female performers.

[–] JoWilli (16224) 21 days ago

she was more famous for her ugly tattoos anyways...

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

Madonna? You are getting the celebrity mixed up with those who can actually sing. Amy could sing jazz. And the list she should be on is Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Ike & Tina Turner. Just as Janis was inspired by Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staple. Tony Bennett said: “What I love about Amy Winehouse is that, of all the singers since the Beatles, you automatically check everyone out who’s a lot younger, but there’s been such a big walk away from jazz. Some people think that anyone could sing jazz, but they can’t. It’s a gift of learning how to syncopate but it’s also a spirit that you’re either born with or you’re not. And Amy was born with that spirit.”

[–] Tina (383) 20 days ago

You're kidding right? Did Amy Winehouse look like any kind of jazz singer to you?

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

Yes. She was totally jazz. From the beginning - her beginning. If you can’t tell that, you don’t know your music.

[–] Tina (383) 20 days ago

Take a look at Amy's fashion style and then look at the fashion style of great jazz female vocalists. Does Amy look like a jazz singer to you? How many jazz records did Amy make vs pop records?

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

Why are you hung up on her fashion? I am not talking about looks, I am talking about the sound. It’s also phrasing. Not every jazz singer is going to wear a gardenia in her hair. Music should be listened to, not watched. She blended jazz and soul in her sound, plus she was a great songwriter. Some say jazz is dead but it wasn’t to her. Listen to Hazel Scott, Anita O’Day, June Christy, Julie London, Carmen McRae; she fits in with this group. Just google Amy at 16 singing Moon River and listen to her.

[–] Tina (383) 20 days ago

So if a country singer wearing a cowboy hat, dungerees, chaps, a bandana and cowboy boots got up on stage and started singing It Don't Mean A Thing( in a traditional jazzy way) you would say that that person is a jazz singer? Or just a country singer that just happens to sing a jazz song real well?

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

You missed the point about everything. But it’s odd that you should say country - because there are a lot of country songs done by country singers that R&B singers have done which are considered soul and vice versa. You have Willie Nelson singing Funny How Time Slips Away, because he wrote it, but Al Green sang it too. So did The Spinners. And you have Otis singing Sitting on the Dock of the Bay because he wrote it, but then you have Glen Campbell singing it. And nobody has to get dressed up to do anything. You have to listen to music not watch it. Which is kind of what you do by your list of female singers. Some are really really great singers but a couple are just performers and icons. I like Cher but I would never listen to her sing. Never. And never Madonna. These two are not great singers.

You obviously have little respect for Amy’s talents but many of us recognize them. You might see her as a useless pop star or what was it - a one hit wonder - but her distinctive vocal style was shaped by her love for jazz when she was a teen. Listen to her and Tony Bennett - Body and Soul. She sounds a lot like Billie. And It Don’t Mean a Thing. Jeez. Is that your idea of jazz or I guess it’s maybe just jazzy.

[–] Tina (383) 20 days ago

Lady Gaga collaborated with Tony Benet to do one jazz album. Does that make Lady Gaga a jazz singer? Amy Winehouse would never have been as talented as Lady Gaga.

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

Yes. She her inspirations were totally jazz and R&B. From her core. You can hear her style in all the jazz and soul greats. That’s all she was interested in. As far as what she looked like, she went back to the early 60s girl groups with beehive hairstyle and elongated eyeliner. She’s not doing Madonna. Celine. Cher. She’s a Ronette. It’s always the Brits who fall in love with American jazz and rhythm and blues. And if you loved jazz and R&B as much as I do, and I’m not British, then you’d hear it in her singing. She was one of the great ones. And they don’t happen often.

[–] Tina (383) 20 days ago

But the issue was about Amy Winehouse as a jazz singer. Stop bringing in other genres of music into it. As far as I can tell based upon what the woman accomplished, was that she was a one hit wonder.

[–] letess (1076) 20 days ago

She did it all. Sing jazz. Sing soul. Sing pop. R&B, gospel. And she could compose music and lyrics. But she started out with jazz. She was talented. And I get it. You’re not a fan.

[–] BillySlater (4126) 20 days ago

She was a jazz singer, her fashion sense is not relevant, neither is whether she was a one hit wonder or not. Although, I disagree with that since both Rehab and Back to Black made the US top 10.

[–] BGLAVI2 (12) 19 days ago

Yeah that was kind of her entire MO. Not to be corporate sell out trash with average music. C'mon.
Hey here's a 101. There is corporate pop artifice and there's real people with actual talent who do quality work.

[–] TheArgentinian (6619) 16 days ago

Lady Gaga? the pop star with the most generic music out there? lol

[–] filmgeek99 (616) 20 days ago

Agreed, she gets way too much of a pass for how shitty of a person she was just because she died young (which was her fault, anyway). I saw the 2015 documentary Amy last year and while I found it moderately interesting, it did not change my opinion at all that Winehouse was anything but white trash personified. The people in the documentary keep talking about how smart and funny she was, but not once did any of the footage we saw demonstrate those traits. She just talked and acted like a whore the whole time.

Amy was honestly nothing but a garbage person and an overrated singer. Her voice was unique, but it honestly got grating really fast. The fact that she joined the 27 Club should not automatically grant her the status of "legend".

[–] emori (3284) 20 days ago

She was trailer park trash who suddenly got famous because of few hits. But could not change her trailer park way of living. And died by falling on the lowest.

She was not a good person. Never liked her. And movie has Lifetime Channel quality. Actress is too polished and clean and does not look like trash. She was miscast.

Not every celebrity needs biopic movie.

[–] emori (3284) 20 days ago

The saddest and most amazing part is that her equally trashy junkie husband is still alive. Looks like he got himself together. Has a child. While her stupid ass died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83T8KYmnH5g

Where Is Amy Winehouse's Ex-Husband Blake Fielder-Civil Now?
https://people.com/where-is-amy-winehouse-ex-husband-blake-fielder-civil-now-8650211

It is unclear who Fielder-Civil is in a relationship with today. He is a father, though, of two children — a son named Jack and a daughter named Lola — who he welcomed with ex-partner Sarah Aspin in May 2011 and April 2013, respectively.

Fielder-Civil made a recent appearance on Good Morning Britain in April 2024 to discuss the new Winehouse biopic. During his conversation with the hosts, he opened up about his thoughts past relationship with the late musician and shared updates on his own life today.

"I've been clean for years myself," he first revealed after being asked about his own addiction battle. "It's not as black and white as that. I was a very young person I thought I had the answers. ... If I would have known how it was going to develop, I would have been far more careful."

[–] TheArgentinian (6619) 16 days ago

Most talented artists have/had messy lives. They aren't all likable. That's fine. Talent comes with a price.

What annoyed me the most how "I'm not like other girls" pretentious she was. Or was portrayed as.