I realize that I’m quite late in seeing the documentary “Amy.” Other reviews have lauded the filmmaker Asif Kapadia (“Senna”) and his unique documentary style. Many have called the film heartbreaking and bittersweet and powerful and dark and sad and complicated. The two words used to describe Amy are talented and tragic. I agree with all of that.
The film arcs her from teenage days joking with her two best friends through explosive fame, a nasty boyfriend/husband, a relentless exploitative press, and brutal addiction and eating disorders. And at the intersection of the bulimia and the alcohol, she died.
As the film progresses, Amy shrinks. Quite literally. And she is increasingly surrounded by big men who smother and cushion and enclose her. Her dad, manager, bandmates – all big guys who define the borders of her vision. She can’t see past them, can’t get around them. She is tiny.
Everyone in the business who is negotiating for or with her, who is guiding her career, who is fencing her into a performance schedule that she resists, who is collaborating with her musically – they’re all men. The whole business world that is making a living off of her talent: they’re all men. Not all of them are bad guys, but that’s not the point. Her girlfriends (and her original loving manager) refuse to enable her substance misuse, and while constantly assuring her that they’re there for her when she wants them, they cannot break through the wall of testosterone surrounding Amy.
Without her girlfriends, Amy is doubly vulnerable. Her team fails to shield her from the invasive flash of the paparazzi (portrayed so aggressively in the film that I felt assaulted) – either they don’t know how or they don’t mind the attention. No one shows rigorous concern about her health. Her mother says that she has never been able to discipline or direct Amy. “I’m weak,” she whines. Amy’s egotistical father loves, too much, the ricochet of her fame onto himself.
The music business is notoriously sexist, ridiculously male-dominated, and often disrespectful to talented women who would like a place at the table. If Amy could have worked with women producers, promoters, and musicians, would she have been kidnapped while unconscious and taken to a stage in Belgrade that she didn’t want to be on but which her bodyguards wouldn’t let her off? Would she have been forced to go on the road when what she needed was shelter and safety and a time to work on her writing?
Throughout the film I felt like the sexism of the industry, the exclusion of women from a fair share of the crucial roles, and the resulting masculine culture Amy had to cope with must have added in a disastrous way to her other troubles. Discrimination kills in many ways.
Here's the official trailer:
I think it did. I miss her.
Posted by: Marj | 22 August 2015 at 13:45
Wow. I haven't seen the documentary, but your commentary about the sexism of the industry and how it destroyed Amy is so powerful that I had to comment, if just to praise you.
Posted by: Joan Price | 22 August 2015 at 13:55
I will go see this after your review. I live so on the margins, I never heard of her until last night and did not know who she was, still do not, really, until reading your very fine review.
I will google her after I send this off to you
I do not use the word "sexist" any longer, not for several years. I use only "misogynist."
Things are so bad for women out there, for me "misogyny" is the only word that works
And I am so happy now that black lives matter is also calling "racism" now for what it is "white supremacy"
My darling beloved dog companion, Esther, died 5 weeks ago and she was very young. I am still in raw grief
Posted by: Sheila Parks | 22 August 2015 at 13:56
Sounds like a remake of "Breaking Glass", a brilliant film from about 1980. Worth a re-watch if only for the brilliant music. Of course that was drama, so the ending isn't quite so tragic, but the story is the same one.
The answer to your fundamental question is, of course, complex. Let's face it Amy was not the first, regardless of sex to be chewed up and spat out by the music industry. Does the industry do that because it is dominated by men, or because it is dominated by greed? Greed is not a male prerogative, and women have plenty of ways of destroying others, especially other women, too.
Posted by: Mike Evans | 22 August 2015 at 14:29
I think many women and children (think Michael Jackson) are used and abused in the entertainment industry. It's a type of modern day slavery that everyone supports--this worship of the "talented one" the celebrity. The slave often lives a terrible life and dies early from drugs and loss of control of her/his life. The drive to make even more profit from the slave creates this cannibalism where a "well-meaning" handler pushes the slave to death. What a sad society we live in that we accept this as normal. It goes beyond appreciating someone's hard work and talent, it is total abuse and gives the "fans" a warped set of expectations.
Posted by: Patricia Hilliard | 22 August 2015 at 15:38
Joan, I'll be interested in what you think when you do see it (assuming you dug Amy - I was a huge fan for years - and therefore wanna see it.)
Posted by: sue katz | 22 August 2015 at 16:54
So very sorry for your loss Sheila.
Posted by: sue katz | 22 August 2015 at 16:55