marisa abela – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

BACK TO BLACK – Review by T. J. Callahan

May 9, 2024May 10, 2024 T. J. Callahan amy winehouse, back to black, biopic, marisa abela, Sam Taylor-Johnson

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and star Marisa Abela try their best to help us smile for Amy Winehouse. And it works, in the new musical, drama biopic Back to Black. While the 2015 Oscar winning documentary, Amy, was raw and revealing,Back to Black, named after Winehouse’s last album, is a sympathetic view of the tortured torch singer. The film follows Amy from 18 years old and dreaming of a career as a singer like her beloved grandmother to just before her death from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27 and on the verge of superstardom.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: Focus Features to release Amy Winehouse biopic – Brandy McDonnell reports

April 4, 2024April 3, 2024 Brandy McDonnell amy winehouse, back to black, biopic, eddie marsan, focus features, Jack O'Connell, lesley manville, marisa abela, monumental pictures, Sam Taylor-Johnson, the week in women, twiw

Focus Features will release “Back to Black,” the anticipated biopic of the late Grammy winner Amy Winehouse, in U.S. theaters on May 10. Back to Black is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson from a script written by Matt Greenhalgh, following their successful collaboration on Nowhere Boy in 2009. Back to Black is billed as a never-before-seen glimpse into Winehouse’s early rise to fame and the release of her groundbreaking studio album “Back to Black.” Told from the singer-songwriter’s perspective, the film is meant to be “an unapologetic look at the woman behind the phenomenon and the relationship that inspired one of the most legendary albums of all time.”

Reviews

SHE IS LOVE – Review by Rachel West

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023 Rachel West Hayley Bennett, Jamie Adams, marisa abela, Sam Riley, She Is Love

Writer-director Jamie Adams’ She Is Love is a directionless drama that squanders any potential it might have had. Failing to say anything new or even interesting despite the casting of capable actors Sam Riley and Hayley Bennett in the lead roles, the film feels like a limp improv study with barely enough going on to warrant its scant 82-minute runtime. The premise is promising: Patricia arrives at a country hotel in Cornwall to discover that her estranged ex-husband lives there, acting as the hotel manager. Having not seen one another in a decade, there are myriad ways the two former flames need to catch up, potentially setting up a multitude of directions this story could take. Unfortunately, the path it chooses is the least interesting.