The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s (Marisa Abela) early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, BACK TO BLACK, that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.

For in-depth thoughts on Back To Black, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment brings Back To Black to Blu-Ray with a stellar 1080p video presentation. The image is clean with the natural color palette radiating off the screen. The film employs splashes of vivid colors within the lighting, clothing, and production design. The presentation provides a significant amount of depth on display, especially when out in the city. The detail throughout is impressively sharp in all lighting conditions. Black levels are appropriately deep and inky, but digital noise does prove to be a subtle issue at certain moments in the film. The flesh tones are natural with gentle nuances showcased well in close-ups and medium shots. This is as fetching of a presentation as any modern movie should provide on Blu-Ray. Universal has treated this one well.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio track that is quite excellent without being overwhelming. Music plays a vital role in establishing the mood and trajectory of the narrative, and this track does a great job of filling the room in a truly immersive way. Dialogue comes through crisp and clear without ever falling victim to overlapping voices or strong accents. Everything is mixed perfectly with directionality accurately rendered across all channels. The sounds of the live performances provide a good amount of nuance in the rear channels along with intense activity in the low end. This track honors the spirit of the movie with a multifaceted journey that ranks as something worthy of praise. Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles are provided.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Director Sam Taylor-Johnson delivers a sturdy commentary track that offers some decent insights into the production process, the decision to let Marisa Abela sing in the film, drawing on moments from Amy’s life, and more.

Transforming Into An Icon: An eight-minute piece in which the cast and creative team discuss bringing Amy’s story to the screen, the casting process, attempting to get the best actress rather than a lookalike, the physical transformation, and more.

Music As The Heartbeat: A three-minute featurette that takes a look at the importance of the music to the narrative, bringing some of Amy’s bandmates in to capture a greater level of authenticity, and more.

Final Thoughts

Back To Black continues the exhausting trend of hagiographic explorations of real-life figures that hit the same notes in every attempt. Yet, this film is an even more egregious endeavor given the fact that the veneration is funneled not toward its subject, but the survivors left in her wake who helped get the film made. There are so many people given a free pass who contributed to Amy’s downfall, and the way she is portrayed is frankly a bit insulting. The main saving grace of this film is the performance from Marisa Abela, but the script lets her down. Go watch the documentary Amy if you want some real insight into Amy Winehouse. Universal Picture Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray that sports a great A/V presentation and a few brief special features.

Back To Black is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.