Amy Reflection

Amy is a depiction of the heartbreaking rise and fall of Amy Winehouse. Watching Amy is a deeply intimate experience. Knowing of her tragic fate, it feels almost shameful to watch as she rises to fame, which is a catalyst to her eventual downfall. She expresses some of her innermost thoughts and fears through her music, which gives us a better understanding of who she was as a person, rather than who she became at the end of her life. We can see how she was so strongly affected by the negative influence of the media and the public.

Her deep insecurities and vulnerabilities are the damaging effects of fame. The documentary is a portrait of the harmful toll the media has on a person's life. We see footage of Amy from the very beginning of her career to the end of her life, which emphasizes her devastating transformation. There is a mental transformation and a physical transformation that occurs: as her self-esteem shrinks, so does her body. She transforms from a vibrant and seemingly joyful young woman to a woman struggling with mental illness and an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Amy's vocals are accompanied by her lyrics on the screen. This was an intentional decision by the director to make the audience really listen to what she was trying to say through her songs. Her large voice tends to overpower her vocals, which is symbolic of her troubled public persona overshadowing the root of her façade being her struggle with mental illness. The lyrics on the screen signify that Amy’s lyrics have always been the insight into her emotions. The documentary reveals Amy as more than a tragic public figure, and portrays her as a real person struggling with overwhelming feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and addiction.

The documentary differs from the media's depiction of Amy. The press defines Amy by her public appearances, whereas the documentary reveals who she was as a person, behind closed doors. Instead of chronicling each step of her downfall like in the British tabloids, the documentary shows her dreams and motivations as an artist and as a person.