Back to Black arrived in cinemas earlier this year as the latest example of the wave of music biopics that has brought us the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, and the upcoming Robbie Williams CGI monkey movie. Now, it's streaming on Netflix — Back to Black, not the monkey movie.
On the one hand, this is a great chance for those who missed the movie during its cinema run to catch up on it. However, on the other, it's a chance for Amy Winehouse fans to revisit all of the things the film did wrong in their eyes. It's fair to say that Netflix subscribers haven't fallen head over heels in love with Back to Black.
Back to Black: A Divisive Film
The film stars Industry's Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse, tracing her rise to fame in the Camden music scene, as well as her romance with Blake Fielder-Civil — played by Jack O'Connell. Of course, the film also depicts her high-profile struggles with addiction and her eating disorder.
When the movie hit cinemas in April, reviewers weren't kind. Back to Black currently has an approval rating of just 35% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. However, in our own review at Yahoo, we wrote: “It is a serviceable biopic, and though it doesn't stand out quite as much as its subject did during her lifetime it retells Winehouse's story with care and that is something to celebrate.”
Back to Black on Netflix: Fan Reactions
One viewer explained: “I really didn't want to hate it, but I did, for all the reasons most people who liked Amy hated it.”
Another viewer wrote that, even after just 10 minutes, the film was “the most jarring thing I’ve watched in a long time”. A third viewer tweeted that the film “basically reduces Amy Winehouse to I’m just a girl, standing in front of a guy, asking him to love her”, but conceded that the acting is great.
It wasn't all bad news, though, with one viewer explaining that the movie had given them a new appreciation for Winehouse's work. They said: “I never really vibed with Amy Winehouse music but just watched the Netflix movie doc thing and suddenly realised I like the lyrics of some of the songs, I've always liked the woman just think the songs were massively over played.”
The Future of Music Biopics
Back to Black will continue to divide viewers as more and more people see it on Netflix. But there's no denying that the movie did okay at the UK box office, where it earned more than £12m. Globally, though, it struggled and its worldwide total sits at just $51m (£39m).
It feels as if this wave of music biopics is passing. Certainly, nothing in the last few years has matched up the cash and awards hoovered up by Bohemian Rhapsody, despite the critical drubbing it received in some quarters. The only thing that can save the genre now is Robbie Williams and his CGI monkey. Watch this space.
Back to Black is streaming on Netflix now.
