Back to Black
Focus Features | Release Date: May 17, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
22
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMay 17, 2024
The film is detailed, vivid, enthralling—and necessarily full of pain. The performances are top-notch, led by Ms. Abela, who does her own singing in an amazing re-creation of Winehouse’s muscular soul vocals. Read full review
80
NMENick LevineApr 9, 2024
This film was always going to face accusations of being exploitative – given the way Winehouse was scrutinised when she was alive – but the naysayers needn’t have worried. Taylor-Johnson’s film (particularly the ending) is impressively deft and delicate. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 9, 2024
Back to Black is essentially a gentle, forgiving film and there are other, tougher, bleaker ways to put Winehouse’s life on screen – but Abela conveys her tenderness, and perhaps most poignantly of all her youth, so tellingly at odds with that tough image and eerily mature voice. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 15, 2024
Back to Black holds back from wallowing in Winehouse’s dysfunction. Instead, like an authorized biography, Back to Black chooses to be kind to everybody. It’s not the flashiest choice, but the world is big enough for one kind biopic. Winehouse deserved to get lucky, at least once. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiz BraunMay 15, 2024
This is perhaps a kinder, gentler Amy Winehouse story? Maybe so, but there’s no opportunity for emotional investment, despite Marisa Abela’s wonderful performance. It’s all a bit like seeing a good cover band. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicEd MasleyMay 15, 2024
It glosses over any number of defining Winehouse moments. In the end, though, you do get a sense of who she was and why she was the way she was, and how that drove her to create such deeply soulful music. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanApr 9, 2024
At its best, Back to Black, the forthright and compelling movie that’s been made of Winehouse’s life, takes that light/dark balance and digs into the drama of it, making it sing. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowryMay 17, 2024
Thin as biopics go, the power of Abela’s portrayal elevates the film, providing a poignance and strength that’s the clearest motivation to go, go, go. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesYasmeen WafaiMay 22, 2024
This isn’t a bright tale of Winehouse’s rise to stardom. It’s a tragic story of a once-in-a-generation talent gone too soon. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerMay 15, 2024
The tenderest thing Taylor-Johnson does in Back to Black is remind us how very young Winehouse was when she wowed the world. Read full review
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