There was a sad inevitability to the untimely demise of prodigiously talented British singer Amy Winehouse. Her death in 2011 at the age of just 27 followed a string of troubled years for the performer, including widespread reporting on her issues with alcohol and substance abuse, as well as severe mental health issues.
And yet we, as people, watched, and joked, and jeered at times whenever she stumbled. In part because the cult of celebrity can be unfathomably toxic, and in part because for whatever reason it’s in our innate nature to level a Bronx cheer whenever someone higher up the mountain than us falls down.
The talented life and tragic end of Amy Winehouse is being covered in a new documentary simply titled Amy. The film includes previously unseen archival footage of the singer from the early stages of her career, and covers her struggle with fame, as well as our uncompromising treatment of it.
The film comes from the same team behind the stupendously excellent Senna, the film chronicling the life and death of Formula 1 superstar Ayrton Senna. If you haven’t yet been able to see that one, absolutely put a couple of hours aside this Easter weekend to do so. It’s a masterpiece.
The first trailer for Amy has dropped, and it paints a fairly haunting picture, as an old interview with Amy plays where she expresses her own worries about having to deal with any prospective fame she might come into, doubting her own ability to deal with it.
If the trailer is anything to go by, this looks like it could well be utterly essential viewing.
Amy is scheduled for release in the UK and Ireland on July 3rd. No word yet on any prospective Australian release date.
