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Amy | 2015 | R | - 5.4.6

Documentary examining the life, career and drug-related death at age 27 of singer and pop star Amy Winehouse. Also with Mitchell Winehouse, Janis Winehouse, Yasiin Bey, Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett, Blake Fielder-Civil and Raye Cosbert. Directed by Asif Kapadia. [1:30]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A photo shoot shows a man bending a woman wearing a short dress backwards, kissing her, and rubbing her bare thighs, then grabbing her buttocks and lifting her skirt to reveal her lace panties.
 A close-up photo shows a man and a woman with wide-open mouths, their tongues touching. A man and a woman kiss passionately. A woman licks a man on the cheek. Several photos show the woman kissing a man on the cheek and lips; other photos show him kissing her cheek. A man in jail sees his wife embrace another man on a beach and files for divorce; we see the divorce filing with the reason listed as adultery.
 Several scenes show a woman wearing a bra or tube top or open shirtfront and bra, with short shorts with a waistband that hits just at the top of the public bone (we see bare arms and midriff, moderate cleavage, and legs to the thighs). In a close-up a woman sits with legs crossed and facing the camera. A woman is shown wearing a mesh dress that reaches only the top of her thighs and shows her bra and briefs. A woman wearing a short nightie and short robe reveals some cleavage as she lies on her side on a floor with her knees bent to her stomach, revealing bare lower legs. A woman wears a bra with short shorts (we see cleavage, abdomen, navel, and lower abdomen to the top of the pubic bone; no pubic hair is seen), while a man lies across her lap, shirtless in shorts. A male guitarist is shirtless under a jacket and we see his bare chest. A tattoo of a woman's head, bare arms and bra top that reveals moderate cleavage is seen. A woman wears several mid-thigh length dresses that have thin straps or no straps and reveal significant cleavage. A man is seen shirtless at a beach and wearing Bermuda shorts. Several women wear bikinis that bare backs, moderate cleavage, thighs, and legs at a beach.
 An ex-husband states that his jazz singer wife was promiscuous because her father left the family in her early childhood. A narrator says about the ex-husband that he liked girls, was always having sex and was always in and out of bed with girls. The voiceover of a woman says that she and her ex-husband, when dating, had sex often even though he had another girlfriend, but the first woman did not feel it was infidelity. A woman says, "Nicky's legs are his best part" (we do not see Nicky). A male voiceover says that a woman had the "hots" for a man; the man in question appears in a photo with the caption, "You need a powerful man." Song lyrics include mentions of infidelity and cheating. Song lyrics include, "He kept his [anatomical term deleted] wet," another includes, "You'll be in a safe place, in my bed" and another set of lyrics includes, "Love is a losing game. Love is a losing hand." A man says that he had an affair with a woman from work, producing a female baby and as a woman she says that she laid around the house with her boyfriend and her mother did not stop her. We hear a message left by a woman on her ex-boyfriend's phone that she will always love him and continue to call him; a voiceover says that she left many such messages, which the man never returned.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - Police break down a woman's door in silent footage and we hear that the officers arrested the woman's husband for obstructing the law; he was jailed.
 EMTs carry a woman's body from her home in a red body bag on a gurney and place it into an ambulance while women stand along the sidewalk and cry and we hear that the deceased's blood alcohol level was four or five times the legal limit for driving.
 A woman appears in two scenes wearing bandages: One scene shows bandages on the right hand and wrist; another scene shows a thick bandage or light cast on her hand and forearm to the elbow. A photo shows a wife with her husband, deep scratches on his right cheek and smeared mascara on both of their faces. A man states in a voiceover that he cut his arm accidentally under the influence of drugs and his wife broke a bottle and said she would cut her own arm, but did not do so.
 In a photo shoot a woman holds a large knife and draws the tip of it around her bared navel and an abdominal tattoo of a coiled creature; she says she got chicken scratches from the knife, but we cannot see scratches. A woman chews her lips and picks at them in a close-up during an interview. A woman wears stud piercings in her nose and one side of her upper lip.
 Paparazzi chase a woman with loud popping light flashes and shouting in several scenes and three of these scenes are exceptionally intense and loud.
 In interview footage, a woman mumbles and her sentences are partially gibberish, likely from drug use (please see the Substance Use category for more details). We hear that a man breaks up with his sexual partner by text causing her to become depressed and go on a drinking binge (please see the Substance Use category for more details); we hear that her apartment becomes filthy and smelly and we see footage of her lying on the floor with an alcoholic drink beside her. A narrator states that a woman used to eat large amounts of food in a restaurant and then go to the restroom and throw it up, but we do not see this. A woman says that her daughter told her about having bulimia at age 15. A woman says that doctors warned her daughter about her irregularities from substance use and that if she has another seizure, she will die; we do not see seizures or hear about the first seizures. We hear that a woman's mother died of lung cancer.
 A little girl falls down and cries in a home movie. Two photos show a woman staring into the distance with glazed eyes. A photo shows a woman sticking out her tongue, which is coated dark brown. A photo shows a woman's face with sunken eyes and cheeks, while a male voiceover says she looks like neglected horses.

LANGUAGE 6 - About 18 F-words, 1 possible obscene hand gesture (this was a fast move and could have been either the index or middle finger), 6 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (jazz snob, fat lady, fake, catty, common, idiot, mad, crazy, drunk, mug, weird, stupid), stereotypical references to men, women, absent fathers, pop singers and song writers, playboys, divorced women, drug and alcohol abusers, celebrities, paparazzi, reporters, Jews, 4 religious exclamations (God Bless Her, My God, Oh My God, Laughed At By The Gods).

SUBSTANCE USE - A woman says that she wanted to smoke weed and sit around her own house since age 13, in a close-up a woman sniffs a small bag of marijuana, a caption reads that a woman was drinking and using speed (amphetamines) and not eating, we hear that a woman's father arranged for rehab (she did not go for treatment), we hear that a woman's husband gave her crack cocaine, we hear that after an overdose doctors found crack cocaine as well as powder cocaine and alcohol as well as heroin in her blood stream, we hear that a husband and his wife went to rehab for three days and left and that the husband then gave the woman heroin, we see a photo of a coffee table filled with drugs and paraphernalia as well as alcohol, a woman sings at a concert after pinching her nose and sniffing (her eyes are blank looking and her hair and clothing messy), we hear an intoxicated woman leaving a slurred voice message for another singer, and a woman states that she suffered depression since age 13 and was administered an anti-depressant that made her feel loopy. A voiceover states that a woman could drink anybody under the table and was not afraid to roll a smoke, a voiceover of a woman says that she was drunk every day beginning in January 2005, a male voiceover says staff found a woman passed out on a bar at home and placed her onto a plane to perform a concert in Serbia, we see a woman (drunk) sit on a large speaker and then fall to the floor of a stage and stumbling (the crowd boos loudly when she refuses to sing), a photo shows a woman sitting at a able filled with empty and half empty glasses of wine while she holds a glass of wine, several café scenes show a woman drinking whiskey and Coke or drinks with small umbrellas in them, a bar scene shows a woman stumbling to a bar and drinking a double shot, song lyrics include the word Tanqueray, a club scene shows beer bottles and cocktails on tables while men and women drink from them, we hear that a woman has a drinking and drug binge after a divorce and that she successfully completes rehab, at two music awards ceremonies tables are filled with cocktails we see a man lift a bottle of champagne and lower it (we see no one drink) in the background, a woman drinks from a glass of whiskey in a recording session, a woman looks at the camera and drinks from a bottle of bourbon in a recording session, a woman sings in a concert and throws a cup of whiskey at the audience (it splashes on her), and we see large neon beer bottles in an advertisement at a stadium. Several black and white photos and scenes in home movies show a woman smoking a cigarette, and a photo shows a woman holding a lit cigarette in her fingers.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Life as a singer, opportunists, entourages, lack of privacy, sense of self, fame, loneliness, absent fathers, trust, relationships, friendship, love, respect, substance use, death, loss, grief.

MESSAGE - Opportunists in a performer's entourage and staff sometimes control the performer with drugs and alcohol for their own gain.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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