The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Review

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Review

In 1962 when actor Sean Connery took on the fictional character of Agent 007 James Bond and turned it into an international favorite of film fans, the television network NBC wasted very little time in seeing the opportunity to bringing the same type of spy espionage thriller to American family’s homes and their then black and white TV screens. They called the weekly series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”.

From 1964 – 1967 the TV weekly premise was similar to the James Bond film plots of being both stylish, debonair and thrilling, with the only key exceptions being there were two spies partnered together. One was an American named Napoleon Solo and the other was Russian named Illya Kuryakin. And as with the James Bond missions, Solo and Kuryakin would trek around the world squashing evil and subversive cold war plots against democracy mostly in the form of their arch enemy “THRUSH”.  

Fast forward nearly 50 years and Director Guy Ritchie brings the weekly series to the big screen with the same title of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”. with Henry Cavill ("Man of Steel") starring Solo and Armie Hammer ("The Social Network") as Kuryakin.

In the film adaptation this story centers on two agents putting aside longstanding hostilities to two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

PROS: Director Guy Ritchie has made one of the sexiest, stylish and elegant films I have seen in a while. He has manage to spare no cost in having all of the male actors look simply dashing and GQ in every frame, as well as with the female cast who with their perfectly manicured looks, hair and dress could easily graced any magazine cover then or today. He also puts the right esthetic look to the backdrop of the film from the 1960’s with the look of the hotels, cars, boats, music, clothing, jewelry and street scenes. This film is impeccable looking from frame to frame throughout the entire film.

CONS: While the film looks great and stylish, its plot is as compelling as watching someone reading aloud an article in a GQ magazine for the 1:45 minutes running time. For it (the plot) has no real sense of urgency and no real spin tingling intrigue. And while the TV series did have a bit of a tongue and cheek humor aspect to it (as does this film), U.N.C.L.E the movie made the critical mistake of not creating an emotional connection with the characters and their job of being deliberately in the line of fire in the deadly craft of international espionage. The film looks pretty but it goes down flat.

CONCLUSION: In spite of its good pacing and several witty - funny scenes, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”. while beautiful to watch feels slightly hollow, lethargic and disconnected and in the end somewhat tedious to watch. And though it was not hard to follow with some minimum interest to the plot overall, the film drags.

Still, because it looked good and held my attention minimally, I would say see it, but only after its free on your basic cable network in about 18 months. You won’t be bored, but you won’t be thrilled either.

3 Stars

Straight Outta Compton – Review

Straight Outta Compton – Review

The film “Straight Outta of Compton” tells the story of the group N.W.A. and in the year 1988 when they burst on to the scene as a groundbreaking new group that revolutionized the music industry and pop culture forever with its honest, aggressive and sometimes confrontational storytelling of their lives and experiences growing up in Compton CA.

And the impact? Well, they are acknowledge as being at the forefront of changing and influencing hip-hop music forever with N.W.A's first studio album titled "Straight Outta Compton," that created both huge popularity for their sound and equal controversy with its brutally honest depiction of life in Los Angeles. And with the guidance of their first manager Jerry Heller, N.W.A band members Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E, DJ Yella and MC Ren navigate through the rough and tumble turns of the music industry, with the obvious results of fame, wealth, greed, jealousies, tragedies and ultimately a place in American music history.

PROS: At its core “Straight Outta of Compton” does four things exceptionally well as part of the film’s plot development. One, it tells the intricate individual personal stories of the young men who made up the band. Two, it tells the story of the creative process of their music through the prism of the rough urban life of some of most dangerous streets in America. Three it showcases through the back drop of how the music industry evolved to their original sounds and voice. And four it tells how their new brand of music dramatically changed pop culture forever while simultaneously igniting revolutionary political and cultural wars across the entire country.

CONS: Nothing

CONCLUSION: Unless you have been buried under a rock for the last 30 years you have at one time or another have both either heard the music of N.W.A. and or know they had a lasting cultural impact on music entertainment since their very first track was released. And with that it is not necessary for me to delve in to any particular aspects of the film story and key moments, you all probably know them already.

Also, while I will confess that I am not a fan of hip-hop rap music culture as a simple matter of personal appeal, I did truly admire the imaginative and forward thinking of the band members to strike out on their own path for a new sound that was not only successful, but created music that had the same honesty and sincerity as any famous poet. As with all generations, including my own when I was growing up with the sounds of Motown and Rock music of the 1960’s, all youth are drawn to telling their own personal stories either in the simple written word and or more often in the more memorable format of their music. Such is the same then with the members of N.W.A and that generation who bought their CDs and sang their lyrics out loud.

“Straight Outta of Compton” is very, very entertaining as it is filled with genuine charisma, visceral integrity and exhilarating energy. The acting is almost flawless in telling this unique story by capturing effectively the band member’s actual personalities, their actual physical looks and their mind set from beginning to end. But the film’s greatest strength is its honesty with the story itself, warts and all, without any overdue glamorization to their lives and or those circumstances for better or worse that defined who they were and became.

N.W.A and its story “Straight Outta of Compton” is a fabulous film to watch with not one single boring moment. It tells why their music mattered then and now, but it ultimately tells a uniquely American story of how these young men found through imagination their own path through their own Ellis Island to the American dream and American success by way of the streets of Compton, CA.

3 - 3/4 Stars

The Gift - Review

The Gift – Review

Melbourne Australian born actor Joel Edgerton is building up a resume of very solid work that in my estimation will garner him an Oscar nomination in the not too distant future. His previous works include the wider audience type fares of “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Great Gatsby”, as well as two films soon to be released in 2015 with the first titled “Black Mass” that tells the true story of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp) and the second film in the Western genre starring Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Bradley Cooper in “Jane Got a Gun”. If you want to see him in something out of the norm that is both suspenseful and riveting I highly recommend you rent Edgerton’s acting and writing work in the independent films “Animal Kingdom” and the “The Square”. And it’s with this eclectic resume we see his latest effort, as well as Edgerton’s full range of stage craft skills as the star, director, producer and writer of the screenplay in the genuinely effective psychological thriller “The Gift”, starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall.

Early on in “The Gift” we see a young married couple named Simon (Bateman) and Robyn (Hall) whose life is going just as planned as Simon has taken a new job in sunny California. In very short order they have a totally chance encounter with an acquaintance of Simon's from high school and as to be expected with people’s appearances changing from the way you last remember them Simon doesn't initially recognize his former class mate named Gordo. But it’s after their meeting in the mall that Gordo, under the guise of being friendly and neighborly, finds out where the couple’s new home is and begins to show up uninvited to their door. When neither of them are there Gordo leaves a series of mysterious gifts for them to find that over time begins to feel and prove to be very troubling.

After something really strange happens one evening, Simon approaches Gordo to directly demand he stop coming by their home. But it’s from this confrontation we soon discover that both Simon and Gordo share much more in their past than being classmates 20 years ago with Robyn becoming increasingly suspicious of what exactly happen in their past between her loving husband and this stranger that Simon refers to from his high school nickname as “Gordo the Wierdo”.     

PROS: The first hour is simply brilliant as we see an Alfred Hitchcock-ian type execution of a story delivered in very subtle layers filled with titillating drama and unnerving anticipation from scene to the very next. In fact there were two specific instances in “The Gift” where large sections of the viewing audiences in the theater let out very loud screams in the anticipation of something bad was about to happen. Not for me of course as I know when I being set up for something like that.  

Also, the first hour does a good job in not revealing its key plot point until much later and therefore I was constantly guessing as to what subtle clues to that plot was I being given in either some seemingly benign throw away conversations and or some hidden symbolisms that could help me along as to why Gordo was intent on entering Simon and Robyn lives. I got nothing and that was a good thing.

CONS: The second hour flattens out just a tad from its previous effective climb. My guess the transition in the writing got stretch a little thin mostly by the sudden change in some of the characters initially straight forward personalities. But it is probably more of my own hang ups about the story earlier effectiveness and in the end not a real criticism of the overall story telling of human intrigue. And while this change never hurts the films approach to some hidden “secrets” which are at the core to the films story, it just seemed for me the transition could have been done just a little smoother.

CONCLUSION: “The Gift” is about trust. Who do you trust, what do you trust and how do you go about trusting. And when you mix a secret with the lies to cover it up, you end up with a story and a film with real human life and death like tension when people betray that trust.

“The Gift “is dark, at times very creepy, chilling, and direct and a very much focused film. Overall nothing in this movie is a cheap salacious effort to entertain you as you feel the circumstance that have drawn these people together are real and contemporarily meaningful. Director Edgerton makes really good use of camera angles, night time darkness, shadowy movement, faded images, bumps in the wall and moments of prolong silence as effective moments of real fear as I have seen in a film in some time. And while you are watching this you know you are being totally manipulated each step of the way and yet you can neither figure out how nor do you care as to why, as it felt every 15 minutes of this 1:45 minute film we are dealt a new surprise after another to its very smart and unanticipated conclusion.

Joel Edgerton has a gift for patience which I like in a good Director as well as his appreciation for taking old time drama stories and placing them in contemporary packaging. He understand the range of human emotions and uses them as a landscape to telling a good story without any gimmicks, car chases, explosions or cheap sex scenes.

Some have referred to “The Gift” as this generation’s modern take on the game changing film “Fatal Attraction” only this time for men, well it’s not that at all. But what it is, is a film that will make you think about life overall and especially about the past. It will scare you a bit as you unwillingly but consciously contemplate something you may have consequentially done in your past that may come back to rear its ugly head 20 years later. But above all “The Gift’ dives head on into that emotionally unpredictable door of what torment is like when it is in the form of a lifelong journey of betrayal, which in the end irreparably damages the most important of human qualities we should value above all the rest; “Trust”.

3 – 3/4 Stars

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – Review

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – Review

Tom Cruise sets out again to save the world as super-agent Ethan Hunt in the fifth installment of the “Mission Impossible” franchise, with the latest title being “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”. And with his usually cadre of supporting IMF agents in tow to help the ever versatile Hunt bring order to the world, we once again go on a whirlwind adventure of shadowy bad guys and bad girls who want to rain down terror on the world.

In this installment, because of a mishap that occurred in the field the CIA Director played by Alec Baldwin has decided to inform a Senate over sight committee that it’s time for IMF covert operations to be permanently disbanded, essentially leaving Agent Ethan out in the cold. But before Ethan can come in he is apprehended by a dark network of highly skilled special agents, referred to as the Syndicate. These highly trained operatives are singularly focused on their mission of creating a new world order through being a kind of “anti IMF force” as the global catalyst of escalating terrorist attacks anywhere and anytime. Ethan gathers his team together along with the help of a skillful intelligent British agent named Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who may or may not be a member of the same rogue nation Syndicate to face off this challenge and thusly giving the IMF team a truly impossible mission; solve the mystery of who and what the Syndicate is and being hunted by both the CIA and Syndicate at the same time.

PROS: As far as plot structure goes, this MI5 film is basically like the other MI films with Cruise again being both the smartest and most versatile person in the room, which is not a bad thing; it works well. Cruise wears his Hunts character like an old pair of comfortable shoes that are well broken in. He seems to know just what this character needs to do to be entertaining without being too over the top. And with the help of Director Christopher McQuarrie whose previous work was “Jack Reacher” we find a healthy infusion of a little more levity and light hearted banter between cast in this effort especially in the first hour. McQuarrie also manages to fill the screen with some excellent choreographed scenes that teetered on being both stimulating and thrilling and a bit of what I would describe as “cinematic action ballet”.  All of the action scenes are super hard charging, super clever, super smart and super executed at every turn.

CONS: Minor details, with the first being the story itself. It’s a little light on the dramatic intrigue and intensity Richter scale. Don’t get me wrong the plot is easy to understand and makes basic sense, it just felt like it was the least strong thing in a film that otherwise was so very imaginative in weaving so much dramatic action together. Typically, a good plot makes the action more credible, in this effort it’s the action that holds up the plot somewhat.  

The last thing is Jeremy Renner who plays IMF agent William Brandt. Renner is generally a fine actor, but for me he is a bit of drag on the charisma factor and with that I am not sure what if anything he specifically adds to this film franchise that could not be a done by another actor who delivers the same lines with a bit more “life”.

CONCLUSION: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, in the first hour is a compilation of many things fast and furious fun, filled with lots of action while borrowing a bit from other well know entertainment characters to make it all work. You see some Jason Bourne, James Bond, Claude Van Damme, and John McClane. It also borrows on some entertainment pairings as well in the forms of Crocket and Tubbs and Ivan Drago and Rocky (trust me you will see the comparison rather easily). In the second hour the film starts to settle down a bit to take its plot more seriously by returning to a more dramatic pace and for me an unanticipated smart conclusion.

Ultimately, “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” feels both like watching artist Jackson Pollock during the creative process and a well-designed amusement ride. We get a good splatter of action here and a good dripping of intrigue there, all the while being taken up, down and all around in a fun filled dizzying cornucopia break neck action ride that includes Hunt on the side of a flying plane, Hunt investigating at an Opera, Hunt diving deep under water, Hunt in a car chase on a narrow street and Hunt on a hot motorcycle pursuit. You then add these attributes with some smartly conceived hand to hand fight scenes and a “sexy” knife fight, you will discover as I did that this latest Mission Impossible effort to be a highly entertaining mission to watch.

3 - 3/4 Stars    

Southpaw – Review

Southpaw – Review

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer and Tears of the Sun) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, along with noted screenwriters Kurt Sutter ("Sons of Anarchy) and Richard Wenk, Southpaw is a boxing film about Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal), the undefeated reigning Junior Middleweight Boxing Champion of the World.

Billy Hope, a former felon in his youth, has turned his life around as we see he is now at the pinnacle of his boxing career with huge financial success, an attractive and adoring wife (McAdams), a well-adjusted adorable daughter (Oona Laurence) and a beautiful home. Shortly after a recent bout, tragedy strikes out of the blue causing his wonderful world to come spiraling crashing down, leaving Billy emotionally destroyed, friends abandoning him and virtually falling fast to the lowest of lows rock bottom. With nowhere to go Billy looks for someone to get him back on his feet and finds him in the form of retired fighter Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker) who now manages and trains one of the toughest gyms but only works with amateur boxers only. But seeing something in Billy’s sincerity, Tick decides to train Billy with a new guidance and a new focused tenacity that Billy clearly had lacked before. And now with Ticks direction we see the possibility that Billy will struggle to get back at the top again by battling pass the one person who has been his biggest source of failure; himself. In the end it is Billy’s goal he can win back the love and trust of those he has let down in his past by recommitting himself to the one things he knows best and that is to fight.

PROS: Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors of his generation and he puts everything into this film both emotionally and physically as it is clear he has shaped his body to both perfect the movements of a professional fighter as well as get his body physically rock hard to round out the overall look. Also, Forest Whitaker predictably brings instant gravitas to any character his portrays and does not disappoint here in his role as the avuncular “Boxer Whisperer” trainer Tick Willis. And finally, while not a specific skill, I could not help notice that Rachel McAdams is fine as hell; but I digress.

CONS: “Southpaw” tries to be both “Rocky” and another older boxing film called “The Champ” that starred John Voight and a very, very young Ricky Schroeder. But this is where the films similarities end, as under the vision of Director Fuqua, while the boxing scenes were lively and realistic the overall structure of the film is mostly corny, riddle with clichés’ and seems not to take the time to try develop Billy beyond being a one dimensional figure. Both Fuqua and the screenplay throughout the film struggles to make Billy and his story seem earnest enough to appreciate if he truly deserved a chance for redemption.  Ultimately, I didn’t really care if Billy got his act together mostly because he was by and large a bit of Neanderthal knuckle head who doesn’t endear the audience for any sympathy to his plight. Again, it’s not Gyllenhaal’s fault, the problem is mostly with the film itself with its “paint the colors by numbers” approach and feel and with a screenplay that just seemed to be at times not very sophisticated. It was literally like watching someone broadcast each scene aloud to the viewing audience shouting out ……”we’re getting ready to do this now in the movie”.

CONCLUSION: “Southpaw” is about unbridled anger manager and ego, and this film is steep in both, especially as to what happens when someone relies solely on those qualities one too many times. Gyllenhaal and McAdams for the first 15 minutes of the movie make that narrative of the film initially work and for a while I believed “Southpaw” film offered up some real promise it would be a bit better than it was advertised and reviewed. But by the first 30 minutes of this 2 hour effort I found myself chuckling at scenes that simply were not designed to be funny, largely because they were poorly developed, not believable and essentially not very well execute.

I take my hat off to the 3 big stars of this film as they carry this effort about as far as they possibly could with the many limitations embedded in the written material they had to work with. And while I know some will find this film genuinely entertaining, for me it was like watching a great Olympian (AKA Gyllenhaal) trying to keep the fateful cruise liner Titanic from sinking by swimming with a chain wrapped around both the propeller of the ship and the other end of the chain tied to the swimmers ankle. You applaud and appreciate the herculean effort but obviously it's to no one’s avail.

2–1/4 Stars     

Trainwreck - Review

Trainwreck - Review

If you have ever taken the time to see comedienne and actress Any Schumer’s half hour situation comedy on the Comedy Channel called “Inside Amy Schumer”, the first thing that jumps out about her is she is completely and utterly fearless in making either herself, the situation and others the focal point of a no holds barred joke; sometimes even managing to take a biting jab at all three simultaneously in that uniquely quick witty way she has about her. And along with an ever increasing national profile from her successful stand up shows, as well as the many appearances on those “star making” late night TV shows, it was only a matter time before some “studio executive head” could see her talent as something easily transferable and marketable to a much broader national audience by starring her in a featured role on the big movie screen. And why not, I mean the fact is it’s very easy to see that Amy Schumer is very talented and is also very original in her comic perceptions about modern life, both from a observational point of view (i.e. George Carlin) and as well as from the perspective of a self-assured, very confident and very millennially liberated woman who is in total charge of her own destiny, mind, spirit, body and soul.  Bottom line, she’s the hot comic right now.

On a recent episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s successful on line show “Comediennes in Cars Getting Coffee” (you should see, it’s very funny) Amy Schumer responded jokingly to a question Jerry asked her about dating in which she responded, “Yeah I wonder what it’s like is to date me?” Well, fictional or not, you can get a bit of answer to Jerry’s question in Schumer’s first starring movie role that she co-wrote and was directed and co-written by Hollywood’s go to “de-jure”  comic director these day and former stand up himself, Judd Apatow in the delightfully funny “Trainwreck”.

The movie’s plot starts out with Amy getting an early life lesson about relationships as a child from her father who is laying down the law to her and her sister that “monogamy doesn’t work”. With this facts of life moment in tow we are quickly swooped away to an adult Amy somewhat resolute by that advice in both her professional and personal life as a writer at a “Variety”-ish magazine company who is headed by a strange and slightly unorthodox eccentric editor played by the always versatile Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton.

One day her editor gives Amy an assignment to profile a local NY surgeon named Aaron Conner (Bill Hader) who has a rich clientele of famous athletes with the story delving into his medical career and mostly what’s it like to work on such high price and high profile “knees” and “ligaments”. Problem is Amy doesn’t know a thing about sports and also she could almost care less; so she‘s just going to wing it.

We also see early on when Amy is not working she sleeps around a lot because again as told by her father “monogamy doesn’t work” and with that, Amy’s philosophical focus on life is laid out in full. Whether it’s with her relationships at work, the relationship with her sister and her family or her own personal life relationships, she practices Daddy’s advice to the tee by always putting it to confident ephemeral use, especially when it comes to sex “monogamy doesn’t work”. And whether it’s a new boyfriend or some fly by sexual encounter again “monogamy still doesn’t work”. That is the case until she interviews the steadfast “good” Doctor Connor.

PROS: There are some drop down to your knees very funny moments in the film, but what surprised me greatly was as much as this is film is advertised and marketed as a comedy, it’s more of a sweet drama that has real life situations that just naturally turned very funny. And while some of these scenes were structurally set up to be pushed comedically outside the norm of reality, they were still very funny nonetheless. But even with plenty laughs to go around for almost two hours,  “Trainwreck” is going for something grander and loftier in its goal and that is it wants to tell a sweet romantic more dramatic tale that just so happens along its way has some laughs in it.

CONS: While it didn’t bother me, for those that it does, there are some jokes that are crude and vulgar with its R rating, but nevertheless still funny. In addition there was a couple of scenes that seem somewhat clunky and added marginally to the story. Some of those involved NBA all-star LeBron James with Bill Hader which did have its moment of genuine humor as James is basically playing the romantic advisory to his friend Dr. Connor. James puts a good heartfelt effort to his screen time, but to no fault of his own his scenes (story wise) felt kind of misplaced. I applaud Lebron’s acting skills as he was actually pretty good though essentially playing himself. Still I felt James’s character’s role seemed more as a throw in to the film to make it more marketable to a wider audience rather than having James actually adding something to the film’s story essential or meaningful to the plot. They could have done more with him as he clearly could have carried his own weight.

Finally there were two scenes that seem to range from odd to silly.  One involving NBA announcer Marv Albert, Chris Evert, Matthew Broderick and Lebron that I felt was completely stupid and needless. The other scene was a cheer leading routine that for me while cute could have been written differently or better or just simply cut out altogether which would of made the natural continuation to the films conclusion more connected to the film overall. 

CONCLUSION: “Trainwreck” kind of touches on the old adage “the sins of the father are passed on to the son”, only in this case it is with a girl named Amy which in the form of fatherly advice was misguided and hurtful. A larger point of the film is its paradigm shift on the way we will probably be seeing future stories of romantic tales as part of our entertainment. The fact is 30 years, ago this same movie’s plot would have had the sexual promiscuous lead, with the same foibles and mishaps as the man, while the “I want to settle down” loving well-adjusted co-star good doctor surgeon in the gender form of a woman.

Role reversals is basically what “Trainwreck” is working with at its core, but more importantly the larger story examines how we are just changing in the way we engage in intimacy as a whole as we parallel try to promote human and gender equality. The fact is we are impatient for most things now and are constantly trying to find even faster quicker ways to interact with one another in less and less spans of time even to the point of 140 characters (Tweeter) or less. Trainwreck is just a new modern narrative of how we interact differently in matters of love than our parents when they were growing up. Is that good? Is that bad? Is it neither? I don’t know. Is it funnier? Probably yes.

Overall, “Trainswreck” is fun to watch as it takes a smart, somewhat sly moral approach to discussing current gender sexuality through a balanced examination via an old romantic story formula told many times before. But in Director Apatow case he manages to push this old format with just enough of the right key board strokes to keep it fresh and unpredictable. And while the film is an unapologetic effort of how people today (especially in regards to sex) are just honest with each other, even sometimes brutally so, there are other times we are brutally honest and hilariously so.

Schumer and Hader worked well together as the love interest. Also there are some great lines of humor performed by a homeless man on a street corner that I wished they had included more of him in the film. But the real strength of this film is Schumer who is sharp, sensitive and even effectively dramatic in ways that surprised me. She is a woman in her own time with all the fantasy doting “Stepford wife” illusions completely stripped away. And while Trainswreck is far from great, Schumer carried this film from beginning to end and would not surprise me if she gets an Oscar Nomination for Best Actress next year.

“Trainwreck”, as a film is definitely worth your money and your time even though I feel it is far more somber than you may think going it. You won’t be short changed on the comic meter, but you will probably remember less the various clever biting edgy jokes and more the life lessons it tries to teach.

 3 – 1/2 Stars

Amy - Review

Amy – Review

Amy is a 2015 British documentary film that tells the life story of singer-songwriter superstar Amy Winehouse who rocketed to stardom and by the age of 27 was dead due to alcohol intoxication and the long term effects of drugs and bulimia.

Directed by Asif Kapadia, the film starts with a 1998 home movie of the 14-year-old precocious Winehouse singing along with her long-time friend, Juliette Ashby, at the birthday party of their mutual friend, Lauren Gilbert, at a home in Southgate, London.  From there on the film is a very entertaining, informative and pleasant paced effort  showing the songwriter's life from her infant childhood to her established music career that quickly attained commercial success through her debut album, “Frank” (2003), the number one album of the 21st century and her critically acclaimed multiple Grammy winning “Back to Black” (2006). The film also delves into to her troubled intimate relationships, those who (in my estimation) selfishly leeched on her success, her relationship with her divorced parents, her hidden secret of bulimia nervosa and her eventual slow spiraling downfall from addictive drugs and alcohol addiction that lead her death on a Saturday July 23, 2011 in Camden, London, England.

Overall the film provided some superb footage of Winehouse many performances and songs, as well as her insights about music, her early music influences, how she felt about love and what she wanted to accomplish, especially her desire to make music without all of the kinetic energy of fame itself that typically comes along with being a success in the music entertainment industry.

PROS: Amy (documentary) is as mesmerizing of a cinematic effort of a real life story you will ever see. And if you like music as I am certain all humans do in some form, you can see early on that Miss Winehouse was born with a truly rare gift of musical interpretation that set her apart from a generation of other singers like no other. Aptly described in the film, Amy Winehouse was a “genius old soul in a young woman’s body”. The film “Amy” took me down a path of lush musical vocal richness that had me wondering where she came up with her phrasing in that instinctive moment; a gift from the gods I guess one would say. 

“Amy” is a powerful punch to your musical gut and soul as we watch this great talent move perilously to the sadness that awaits us the viewer of her shorten life. And with each progression of the film’s march to her faithful conclusion you wonder almost aloud in the theater why someone didn’t just grab her physically to save her. Some did try, but as you will discover watching this film you wonder if sometimes if destiny is just bigger than someone’s ability of just saying “no” to a friend.

CONS: None.

CONCLUSION: “Amy” shows the dual effects of how fame not unlike for so many other entertainers that proceeded her (Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin & Kurt Kobain) can have an oxymoronic effect on a talented life allowing some to achieve both incredible financial and critical success and almost simultaneously a cryptic irreversible damaged personal life. While I felt like most people going in to see “Amy” that this would be a confirming tale of how she had wasted her talent; I was wrong.  Instead the film with the steady hand of its Director moved away from that morbid idea towards a more enduring belief that along with an incredible talent she was also a warm, funny, personable, smart, self-assured, sweet, attractive, sexy and overall a very lovely human being.

Amy is something both highly entertaining and other times powerfully hard to watch. And while it has the feeling of a slow moving unraveling devastating train wreck, the film manages nonetheless to emotionally keep you focus much less on the notoriety of her death and more on the incredible vocal talent she possessed.  

Amy will certainly be nominated for an Academy Award Best Documentary and if my pass success in predictions holds true I believe it is now the favorite to win. I will also say unless some eight better films come along for the remainder of the year, it “Amy” will be hard pressed not to be in my personal top 10 films for 2015. It gets inside your head with so much raw and real intimacy I felt Miss Winehouse was in the theater just to sing to me.

This is a must see film for 2015. A great story, a great talent, a tragic ending and some great music to both spirit you emotionally away and to remind you of her unique gifted spirit.

4 Stars