Essential Music Documentary

Powerful Amy Winehouse documentary exposes ugly reality of celebrity

The paradox of celebrities in the modern age is that even as they reveal more and more of themselves on Twitter, Instagram and the like, they can still be as unknowable as ever. This is readily apparent when you’re watching Amy, the new documentary showing the rise and fall of singer Amy Winehouse.

Utilizing home movies, old interviews, concert footage and new interviews with Winehouse’s friends and family, filmmaker Asif Kapadia attempts to dissect exactly what made Winehouse tick. Some of the old videos are amazing to watch, as they capture small, intimate moments far from the stage or recording studio, ones that wouldn’t normally be filmed but are now somehow preserved for all to see.

In fact, it’s those smaller moments that make the film as powerful as it is, as they show Winehouse as a shy, often confused young woman who finds fame thrust upon her instead of actively seeking it out. When she does hit it big with 2006’s Back to Black, it’s immediately obvious that she has no idea how to handle the situation, and worse, no consistent presence to save her from her own demons.

But Kapadia does a great job showing that even though Winehouse had people like her junkie soon-to-be husband Blake and her attention-seeking father in her life, she also had a manager, producers and old friends she could have turned to if she had so chosen. Her decision not to do so in her greatest times of need illustrates what a powerful thing addiction can be.

Of course, Winehouse’s addictions and early death are especially tragic because of the talent that she possessed. Nearly everyone with whom she worked, including the legendary Tony Bennett, notes that her voice and songwriting ability made her a rare breed, someone whose career could have lasted long beyond many of her contemporaries.

It’s alternately exhilarating and depressing watching Winehouse reach the heights of the music industry knowing the downfall that awaits her. But there’s really no other way to experience Amy, an essential music documentary that cuts as close as seemingly possible in showing what being a celebrity truly means.

Amy Winehouse had talents, and demons, beyond compare.

Amy Winehouse in Amy

Photo courtesy of A24

Amy Winehouse had talents, and demons, beyond compare.

Movie Review

Korean monster movie Hope delivers thrills despite its lengthy runtime

Hwang Jung-Min and Hoyeon in Hope

Photo courtesy of Neon

Hwang Jung-Min and Hoyeon in Hope.

Monster movies can take on all sorts of different flavors, from all-out mayhem to quieter ones where the monster can sometimes be the protagonist. The new South Korean film Hope splits the difference to a degree, delivering action-packed sequences while also attempting to understand the non-humans in a way.

The story starts in medias res, with an unseen creature having already done great damage to a huge bull and laying waste to much of a small Korean town. The local sheriff, Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-Min), tries to take control of the situation in the town, while a group of hunters led by Sung Ki (Zo In-Sung) travel into the nearby woods to see what they can find there.

Thus starts a nearly nonstop, 160-minute epic of each side trying (and mostly failing) to defend themselves against gigantic creatures who seem hellbent on destroying everything in their path. It’s not until 40 minutes into the film that the audience is shown one of the monsters in detail, and the less said the better about what it actually looks like, as the mystery behind it keeps the intrigue going.

That initial section of the film is the best, as Beom Seok — eventually joined by deputy Sung Ae (Hoyeon) — goes on a frantic hunt around the town, always just far enough behind the monster to keep from seeing it. The utter destruction he witnesses and his interactions with various locals are intense and oddly funny, with the hectic conversations he has laced with fear and incredulity over how different people choose to act.

Writer-director Na Hong-jin bounces back and forth between the people in the town and the group in the forest, doing his best to maintain the momentum of the first section. This approach works for a while as each group makes their own discoveries about the creatures and has run-ins with them that more often than not are ill-fated. Using a mixture of relatively good CGI, great production design, and an abundance of gore, the filmmaker shows he knows how to make an effective blockbuster-style film.

The trouble is, he doesn’t know when to stop. Somewhere around the two-hour mark of the movie, the story starts to become repetitive and Hong-jin introduces elements that don’t mesh well with what has come before. For some reason, he decides that some of the creatures should speak, a move that is baffling on several fronts. The biggest one is that they are voiced by English-speaking actors like Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell, but each speaks a non-human language, rendering their performances moot.

Jung-min puts in a fantastic lead performance, one that requires him to vacillate between abject terror and in-control leadership. In-Sung is almost as good, although his character requires him to play one note over and over again. Hoyeon, who some may recognize from Squid Game, delivers an extra shot of energy when she enters the film, something she keeps going despite her character being forced to say some bad lines.

If Hong-jin had kept the focus Hope a little tighter, the sci-fi thriller might have ended up toward the top of this year’s films. But by choosing to extend the story into territories that don’t add much to the plot or make much sense, the filmmaker puts a damper on what was a fun and brutal monster movie.

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Hope is now playing in theaters.

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