Amy Winehouse Analysis

Everyday we see celebrities in the spotlight, whether it be good or bad. Most times our interpretation is sugar coated by what the media tells us. “Amy” a phenomenal biographical documentary about the singer and song writer Amy Winehouse, lets us see inside the artists life, and the ways fame and the music industry effects her directly. With raw footage of her addiction, followed by the ruthless attention from paparazzi you cant help but feel somewhat angry at the way she was treated. The Sedona Film Festival hosted the showing of the film in Flagstaff at Harkins Theater. Viewers were excited, yet surprised at the fact that the film was going to be playing in Flagstaff, due to the small theater. “Amy” has been nominated for five awards, as

well as being a sold out show for the Sedona Film Festival five times. A professor who was seeing the film said, “ I am a huge film fan, and this is a small theater so not many independent films, or documentaries get the chance to come to this theater, and when they do I make sure to come.” The documentary is moving, powerful, funny, and intriguing.
Through the film you see Amy’s life transform and taken over by fame before her eyes.

Starting out as just a girl who performed in small jazz clubs, that quickly changed. She never saw her self as “famous” and quite frankly didn't ever really understand what that meant. Anytime someone said, “Amy how does it feel to be famous” her response would be “What does that even mean?”. Making music was something special to her, something she used as an outlet. With having depression, it was a way to express her feelings and escape the dark feelings and thoughts that came with depression. Fame was never a necessity to her, but its exactly what she received. Through the film she makes it apparent even when the spotlight was on her, thats exactly what she didn't want- she couldn't handle it. Amy had media attention from all over the world due to her exceptional talent in Jazz music. As Amy got more famous you see people in her life use the fame to their advantage. Her father, was constantly welcoming press and photographers to private events even when she was trying to stay out of media and on the road to recovery. Her boyfriend, Blake had an assumption of her taking care of him once he knew she was well off. Amy’s character through this continued to remain humble, until the drugs took over her entire body causing her to lash out to press, her father, and even her

audiences.
Viewers of the film had interesting points when asked their reasons in seeing the film. “Back when Amy passed, she was portrayed as demonized and promiscuous because of her addiction. Whereas other rockstars such as Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Kobane, and Elvis Presley were idolized for the exact same thing. I wanted to see how her life played out through it and how she handled it all”, said a fan at the theater. An older man pointed out that Amy was apart of the “27 club” of musicians who passed at age 27. He went on to say, “ I am a musician myself and through her struggle and addiction, her music still prevailed. It was beautiful and original so I am anxious to see her story and get to know her through the film.” It was astounding to see the amount of people attending the showing, with not one seat left in the theater everyone was able to take in the story of Amy Winehouse and go on with further appreciation for her unique talent in music.