Over the weekend, the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and has since received rave reviews despite the lack of familial support. In a melancholy new trailer for Amy, Winehouse tells the camera "The more people see of me, the more they'll realize that all I'm good for is making music," as the film details her rise to artistic notoriety and heartbreaking decline under pressure.
The full-length feature directed by Asif Kapadia incorporates previously unheard tracks from the Back to Black singer who passed away from alcohol poisoning in 2011, notes Rolling Stone. At just 27 years old, Winehouse joined rock legends Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix in the 27 Club.
In early April, a teaser clip dropped with a common theme detailed in the latest trailer-Winehouse was uncomfortable with being in the spotlight and left unsure how to handle her fame. The trailer also hints at domestic disputes with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil. "I fell in love with someone who I would have died for," Amy says in the film. "And that's like a real drug, isn't it?"
The Winehouse family withdrew support from Amy, calling the filmmakers "a disgrace" for an ill-informed portrayal of Amy's father. The film suggests Mitch Winehouse was largely responsible for the singer's downward spiral with drugs and alcohol. Winehouse's partner at her time of death, Reg Traviss, also stepped up to combat the film by describing it in The Telegraph editorial as "despicable" and "a fictionalised biopic centered around a distorted depiction of Amy's life." He further detests to the films portrayal of Winehouse being "effectively dysfunctional" in her last two years of life.
The Amy Winehouse documentary has an official poster https://t.co/ZvuWkMJGXS pic.twitter.com/BduuQYiTv7
— billboard (@billboard) May 19, 2015
"But what was so good about that period of her life was that it was a time when she had grown into somebody," Traviss wrote in The Telegraph. "At 27, she was very happy, she had a good bunch of friends, really good friends, around her. Her home life was good, too, with a lot of laughter. Her house in Camden was a busy, vibrant household, with a couple of flatmates and family members visiting every day."
The film will debut in New York, Los Angeles and the U.K. on July 3 while the nationwide release will occur on July 10.
