52 Films by Women Vol 8. 14. Back to Black (Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson)
Photo: Dean Rogers. Still courtesy of Studio Canal (UK) There isn’t a word called ‘bioxploitation’ but maybe there should be to refer to films like Back to Black . These are movies that get punters through the door by virtue of their subject, famous pop stars what died too young, that get greenlit to reignite interest in their subject’s back catalogue, maybe make the surviving family a few quid and that. The subject in question is London-born and bred (oy, oy) singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, who had two hit albums, won five Grammys, and died in her pink-walled, half-decorated home in 2011, aged 27. We should be moved – I packed extra tissues – but there wasn’t a wet eye in the house. Like many people of a certain age, I lived through Winehouse’s decline and fall in real time. She was the subject of numerous newspaper headlines, tottering incoherently towards the gutter. Her unhappiness was evident, but what was the cause? The film, written by Matt Greenhalgh and directed by Sam Tayl...