LONDON — In “Amy,” performers as diverse as Yasiin Bey and Tony Bennett sing the praises of the late Amy Winehouse, and the documentary helps reclaim the talented, troubled singer as a musician, rather than a mess.
Critics love it — but it has left her family hurt and angry.
The singer’s father, Mitch Winehouse, has branded the film inaccurate and misleading. He claims director Asif Kapadia depicts the family as doing too little to help the singer overcome addiction.
“They have selectively edited what I said to suggest that me and my family were against her getting any kind of treatment,” Mitch Winehouse told The Associated Press. “We took her dozens of times to detox and rehab over the years.”
Amy Winehouse died at 27 of accidental alcohol poisoning in July 2011, after a battle with drink and drugs that played out in front of the cameras and on tabloid front pages.
Kapadia, the British director of the acclaimed Formula 1 documentary “Senna,” defends his film as a rounded portrait of the artist, built from more than 100 interviews with people who knew Winehouse. Childhood friends of Winehouse and first manager Nick Shymansky opened up to him. So did the singer’s drug-troubled ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil and musical collaborators including producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, musician Bey (the former Mos Def) and Bennett, who calls Winehouse “the truest jazz singer I ever heard.”
Kapadia said the range of Winehouse’s famous fans is a sign of her musical stature and ability to feel at home in many worlds.
“She knew the dustman and she knew Mos Def. And she could talk to Tony Bennett and she could hang out with Questlove — she was amazing,” the director said at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere in May. “The best of every genre (said) ‘She’s the real deal.’ “
Winehouse’s songs were deeply personal — as their titles reveal, from “Addicted” to “Rehab” to “Love is a Losing Game.” They always sounded poignant; doubly so now.
