Barely a year after the death of Amy Winehouse, the hard-living retro soul star turned tabloid obsession who died in 2011 after a public fight with addiction, the singer’s family and record label decided it was time to make a documentary about her legacy.
With the release this Friday of “Amy,” directed by Asif Kapadia, after a much-lauded premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, those who put the project in motion may not have gotten exactly what they expected.
Built on more than 100 interviews and piles of archival footage, including home movies and paparazzi clips, the film fleshes out a nuanced character portrait from a familiar “Behind the Music” arc: prodigious child from a broken home reluctantly finds fame, then self-destructs, potential unfulfilled, with a hand from enablers in her inner circle. While Mr. Kapadia avoids definitive finger-pointing in “Amy,” there is enough blame — and guilt — to go around, with Ms. Winehouse’s ex-husband, management team and the gossip-mongering public all indicted to varying degrees.
[For more of this story, written by Joe Coscarelli, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06...f-the-hook.html?_r=0]
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