BEFORE: By the end of this week, I'll be about halfway through with the music documentaries - now I can't wait to get back to narrative material again. Hell, I can't wait for the end of the year, I came close today to figuring out the chain that's going to get me there. I think I can get to October, I think I've got a good selection of horror movies to draw from (though I'm going to hold off until I can determine what TCM's horror theme is going to be this year - best not to commit to zombies or vampires just yet, not until I figure out which way they're going to zig, so I can zag.).
And then once October's over, I think I have a linking chain that will get me from there to a Christmas movie. One small problem, the chain is three movies short right now, so I either have to hope a couple somethings come along that can drop in somewhere, or maybe I just need to increase the number of October films from 20 to 23. Tomorrow I'll take a closer look at the links between my horror movies to see if that might be easy to do.
For now, Dave Grohl carries over via archive footage from "Hype!" and so does one other famous Dave (see below).
THE PLOT: Archival footage and personal testimonials present an intimate portrait of the life and career of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.
AFTER: A couple of months ago, after seeing a movie (let's say it was "Solo") with a friend, he expressed envy over the fact that I've got my movies organized, and I watch one almost every night. Apparently he felt that he'd fallen too far behind in his own movie-watching, and wished he could do what I do. I told him that he should get started, make a list and then chip away at it, he didn't even have to do what I do, which is make all my movies link together, just even watching randomly might give him a sense of accomplishment. Like, I can attest that you'll never FINISH this process, but at least you can feel like you're not falling further behind every day.
There are also, however, many reasons to not do what I do, and one of them is that I can get into one of these funks where I watch too many films in a row on a particular subject, or I find myself watching too many dramas, too much sci-fi, too much of whatever in a row is not good. And so I've reached the point where it's become much too much with the rock music chain - too much drugs, too much death, and it's not as much about the music as perhaps it should be. It's not really my fault that I'm in a funk, obviously part of the problem is that filmmakers have chosen to favor the deceased members of the music community, partially because since their stories are OVER, it's a great time to jump on board and tell it, because there will be an ending, the story will feel complete, etc. Perhaps these stories also function as sort of cautionary tales, like "Be careful not to become too famous too quickly, or if you do, try not to spend so much of your newfound money on drugs, because we all know where that leads."
Really, it's the same story, night after night - the names and the details change, of course, but is Amy Winehouse's story really that different from Janis Joplin's? We've got the childhood insecurities, the voice that gets everyone's attention shortly after cutting a record, and the chasing after love, in this person, then THAT person, while deep feeling like they don't deserve it. And then there's drugs and alcohol to take the pain away, and enable the performances to continue, all the while eating away at their self-control. I'm just weary of it all.
Questions can be raised, of course, about who's really to blame, whether it's the artist or the management, or the record label, or the paparazzi and the tabloids, or the fans with short attention spans who are hungry for more material and threatening to go on to the next big thing if they don't get it, or the dealers, and in this case, blame's even thrown on Amy's parents for not instilling some sense of discipline in her when she was a child. Because it turns out that if you give a kid whatever he or she wants, you could create an adult who will find a way to get whatever he or she wants, even if those things are not very good for them.
I don't mean to preach here, I enjoy drinking too much and over-eating myself, though I know those activities are potentially dangerous in both the short and long terms. I get to consider myself drug-free since college, and even though the marijuana laws are getting drastically slackened, and I could even get on a plane quite easily and visit a state with legal weed, I've held off. Because maybe I shouldn't start chasing that high in the first place, as there's plenty of empirical evidence regarding where it could lead. We look to the fallen celebrities to remind us that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy drugs, and that's not the same thing. Therefore, drugs can't make you happy, then can only help you NOT feel sad or depressed, and that's not the same thing either. Happiness must come from within, and if famous people aren't all happy, then what's the point of being famous?
I remember when Amy Winehouse broke big with "Rehab", which I guess was a bit of a cheeky fun song, then it was an ironic song, and then of course later it wasn't funny at all, it was way too on-the-nose. Can we possibly ever enjoy this song again, with someone who later died of an overdose saying she didn't want to go to rehab, no, no, no? I'm glad this documentary saw fit to show most of her lyrics visually, either by showing us floating words on the screen (a more sophisticated version of "Follow the bouncing ball...") or by showing us her original hand-written notes for the song. They kind of had to, because her thick accent and odd musical slurring would otherwise have made it impossible for me to know what she was singing about.
The most telling footage is possibly from her recording a duet with Tony Bennett, where Amy is not only nervous and star-struck, but also terrified of screwing up the song in his presence. That tells us all we need to know about her, that she gave off this image of being a tough, brash, strong-willed individual, but the truth was very far from that. Her husband and father take the most hits here, on for turning her on to drugs and the other for keeping her on the touring hamster wheel when some time off could have benefited her more. After that, there's a very fine line walked here, with decisions being made to show Winehouse while drunk or stoned, and some of the candid photos taken while she was high might have crossed over the line into exploitation themselves. I guess I see why they were included, but I'm questioning that decision at the same time.
Also starring Mitch Winehouse (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), Blake Fielder-Civil (ditto), Lucian Grainge (ditto), Janis Winehouse, Raye Cosbert, Nick Shymanksy, Tyler James, Juliette Ashby, Lauren Gilbert, Blake Wood, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Pete Doherty, Tony Bennett (last seen in "Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars"), Mark Ronson, Salaam Remi, Andrew Morris, Cristina Romete, Chip Somers, Sam Beste, Dale Davis, Shomari Dillon, Phil Meynell, Monte Lipman, Guy Moot, Nick Gatfield, Darcus Beese, Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (aka Questlove), with archive footage of Amy Winehouse (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), David Letterman (also carrying over from "Hype!"), Chris Taylor, Ian Barter, Garry Mulholland, Jonathan Ross, Bobby Womack, Tim Kash, Cynthia Winehouse, Russell Brand (last heard in "Despicable Me 2") Jay Leno, Terry Richardson, Steve Kandell, Alex Foden, Natalie Cole (last seen in "Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars"), Beyoncé (last seen in "How the Beatles Changed the World") Rihanna, Jay-Z, Frankie Boyle, Graham Norton, Reg Traviss, Alicia Keys.
RATING: 4 out of 10 tabloid photographers
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