1324 replies to this topic

[The Other Side]

I'm going to see the preview at the BFI tomorrow morning. I'm on an Amy music binge in preparation!

Lucky you! You have to tell us how it went when you come back!

[HelloSailor]

That last review is the most insightful I've seen so far.

[HelloSailor]

I'm going to see the preview at the BFI tomorrow morning. I'm on an Amy music binge in preparation!

 

Nice one! Glad someone from this forum is going. Can't wait to read your review!

[WhoDat]

I will be sure to post my thoughts here tomorrow afternoon/evening!

[Poom]

I will be sure to post my thoughts here tomorrow afternoon/evening!

 Enjoy the film!

[Ace of Hearts]

Please report back, WhoDat

[Uno]

'Amy" Article & Review from Sight & Sound Magazine (July2015)
It's a pdf file, up on Sendspace ...

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ioiyoe

[WhoDat]

As promised, I'm back!
 

I don't want to spoil it too much for you all, so I'll be brief. The film is great, I really, really liked it. There's a lot of footage in there that I'd never seen before, and some that I had, and I definitely heard a song that I'd never heard before. I think it's the song Detachment? I'd like to hear a full version of it, it sounds like a good song.

 

I particularly enjoyed the first half of the film that focused on her adolescence and Frank days. She just seemed a lot happier in those days, and things do get very grim towards the end. There's some really sad photos of her, pictures she seemed to have taken of herself on a laptop or something, when she was really in the doldrums that I'd never seen before. But the photos and footage of her in the early days were my favourite parts of the film. She seems at her most comfortable and happy when she's with Juliette and Lauren, and the voice-overs they give are very moving. They sound like they are on the brink of tears at certain points and it's quite clear a lot of feelings are still very raw. The clips of her actually singing and recording music are really good too.

 

It's really sad and frustrating just to see how much she changed from the Frank days to Back to Black and how much of that seemed to be influenced by moving to Camden and meeting Blake and wanting to be "on his level". I also got the distinct impression that Blake was not even nearly as infatuated with Amy and she was with him, and was quite happy to enjoy the benefits of her success before dumping her. Despite Mitch's claims that the film paints him as a bad father, I definitely came out feeling more contempt for Blake. It seems she desperately wanted to please him and have him love her as much as she loved him and that kind of drove her to become someone she just wasn't.

 

However, as far as I could see, the biggest villain of the whole piece is the media. Some of the clips of her being hounded by the press are just awful. It's disorienting to watch all the strobe lights and hearing all the paparazzi shouting even from a distance, I can't even imagine what it was like to live in the middle of it. You can tell she couldn't cope with the level of media intrusion and I think it's a pretty important lesson about how we treat people in the public eye. To publicly humiliate anyone is terrible, but to take part in the destruction of extraordinary talent seems unforgivable, and I felt that the media's role in that is perhaps what the film is most critical of.

 

I won't go on, I'll let you guys make up your own minds about it suffice to say that I think it's a nice tribute to Amy and her life. It made me sad not only because of all the music we're never going to hear, but because of the witty, vivacious young girl that she used to be and what she later became. It's really a tragedy.

[Poom]

As promised, I'm back!
 

I don't want to spoil it too much for you all, so I'll be brief. The film is great, I really, really liked it. There's a lot of footage in there that I'd never seen before, and some that I had, and I definitely heard a song that I'd never heard before. I think it's the song Detachment? I'd like to hear a full version of it, it sounds like a good song.

 

I particularly enjoyed the first half of the film that focused on her adolescence and Frank days. She just seemed a lot happier in those days, and things do get very grim towards the end. There's some really sad photos of her, pictures she seemed to have taken of herself on a laptop or something, when she was really in the doldrums that I'd never seen before. But the photos and footage of her in the early days were my favourite parts of the film. She seems at her most comfortable and happy when she's with Juliette and Lauren, and the voice-overs they give are very moving. They sound like they are on the brink of tears at certain points and it's quite clear a lot of feelings are still very raw. The clips of her actually singing and recording music are really good too.

 

It's really sad and frustrating just to see how much she changed from the Frank days to Back to Black and how much of that seemed to be influenced by moving to Camden and meeting Blake and wanting to be "on his level". I also got the distinct impression that Blake was not even nearly as infatuated with Amy and she was with him, and was quite happy to enjoy the benefits of her success before dumping her. Despite Mitch's claims that the film paints him as a bad father, I definitely came out feeling more contempt for Blake. It seems she desperately wanted to please him and have him love her as much as she loved him and that kind of drove her to become someone she just wasn't.

 

However, as far as I could see, the biggest villain of the whole piece is the media. Some of the clips of her being hounded by the press are just awful. It's disorienting to watch all the strobe lights and hearing all the paparazzi shouting even from a distance, I can't even imagine what it was like to live in the middle of it. You can tell she couldn't cope with the level of media intrusion and I think it's a pretty important lesson about how we treat people in the public eye. To publicly humiliate anyone is terrible, but to take part in the destruction of extraordinary talent seems unforgivable, and I felt that the media's role in that is perhaps what the film is most critical of.

 

I won't go on, I'll let you guys make up your own minds about it suffice to say that I think it's a nice tribute to Amy and her life. It made me sad not only because of all the music we're never going to hear, but because of the witty, vivacious young girl that she used to be and what she later became. It's really a tragedy.

And here I am in tears again... Thanks so much for the review though, can't wait to see it

[dykehaze]

Very nice WhoDat.

[The Other Side]

Amazing. I'm looking forward to the footage from the Frank era, and also the rest of the film. So the song we heard in the end of the clip with Nick, was that all we got to hear from it? Or was the full version in the movie?

[WhoDat]

There wasn't a full version, no, just a snippet during the part where Nick is talking about how he convinced her to turn her poetry into music. I do hope we'll get to hear the full version though.

 

Btw, I think Nick, Juliette and Lauren come out the best form the movie. They seemed like some of the few people who genuinely cared about Amy's well-being, and I got the impression that they deeply regret what happened to her and perhaps felt like more could have and should have been done.

[The Other Side]

Oh, i hope so too.

 

 

I never really heard anything about Lauren or Juliette before this film. I knew who Juliette was, but not a lot about her relationship with Amy.

[Poom]

Oh, i hope so too.

 

 

I never really heard anything about Lauren or Juliette before this film. I knew who Juliette was, but not a lot about her relationship with Amy.

I think there is a lot of Amy in Juliette's lyrics (though it might just be me looking into it too much), but it definitely feels like she really really loved her.