Amy Winehouse Documentary Gives Rare Glimpse Into the Singer's Tormented Life
— -- A powerful new documentary about Amy Winehouse, the six-time Grammy winner who died in 2011 after her struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol, is generating lots of buzz after its recent debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
Critics are saying “Amy” offers an intimate, unflinching look at Winehouse, the undeniably talented UK singer unceasingly beset by personal demons that ultimately claimed her life at age 27.
“She just became this rock and roll cliché,” Lyndsey Parker, the managing editor for Yahoo Music, told ABC News. “I don’t think a lot of people saw that she was a kind person, a soft-hearted person, actually kind of a shy person.”
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Interviews delineate her battles with eating disorders and depression, as well as her tempestuous marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil, who is alleged by the film to have introduced Winehouse to crack cocaine in 2007.
“We see in the film that while she had a lot of people surrounding her who loved her, not everyone who surrounded her really had her best interest at heart,” Parker said.
Despite initial support, members of Winehouse’s family have disassociated themselves from the documentary, saying in a statement that allegations that the family “…pushed her into performing or did not do enough to help her” are “…unfounded and unbalanced,” adding, “Amy was an adult who could never be told what she could and could not do.”
“Amy” opens nationwide on July 10.
