Amy * * * *

For me, one of the most disturbing and insightful scenes in this documentary was when Amy’s friend talked about the night of Amy Winehouse's greatest triumph. 
She had emerged from rehab and was looking splendid - fresh, healthy and unaffected by drugs and alcohol.  It was the night of the Grammys and Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black was announced as the best album and best female artist. (I should damn well think so!).  The crowd and her musicians were ecstatic.
In the midst of all this she pulled her childhood and longtime friend Julie from the crowd. This was the person that mattered most to her. Whilst everyone celebrated, Amy told Julie how empty and boring all this was without her even greater friend - drugs.  
It was an insight.   Amy would always need the succour of drugs and alcohol as long as she was living this life - which is  not the one she wanted.
She had been told if she kept drinking and taking drugs she will die. And so she did …. and so she did.   I do not like the whole “no one really understood her” excuse for these tragedies, and Amy doesn't do that. We are invited to form our own opinion.   I might be wrong but the message I got was Amy Winehouse did not want the big stage and the auditoriums.  She was a jazz singer who wanted the small intimate clubs. Fame and pressure from management and promoters took her out of the environment she felt most comfortable performing in, and drugs and alcohol helped her manage this alien space.
Amy’s friend, Julie, is one of many people who contributed to this fine documentary.  All the voices are from those that were involved in her life.  Although Amy chronologically unfolds there is no independent authoritative voice-over telling us what she did next or how she wrote such brilliant songs or where that extraordinary voice came from or why she was so self destructive.
There were people in her life you want to blame, but with their comments and contributions to this film they condemn themselves anyway, oblivious to how selfish and exploitative they sound and behave.  There are also people in this documentary who you wish could have more access to her, for they could have done her good. 
I’m not going to go on here about how she was one of the most original and brilliant singers to come along in the last fifty years.  We all know that.
It could be said the huge affection and sense of loss many people feel for Amy Winehouse puts director Asif Kapadia at an advantage.  Suddenly there on the screen is that girl singing with that voice. We respond with warmth and appreciation. But putting all our  goodwill aside, Asif Kapadia has assembled rare, tragic and beautiful videos and images that give us an informative, inevitably touching, portrait of Amy Winehouse. Amy is a good and welcome documentary with an ending that we hopelessly wish could be different.