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When I think about Amy Winehouse, I can't help but think of my mom. My mom is the first person who introduced me to her music, she had watched her Grammy performance and must have bought me the CD for my birthday that year, because I have no memory whatsoever of buying it for myself. And of course, Amy's very public battle with substance abuse was reminiscent of my mother's own lifelong struggle with alcohol addiction. My mom attempted suicide two times before finally succeeding in 2013, and one weird detail I remember about the first attempt is listening to Amy Winehouse a lot in the following weeks, particularly Rehab, and feeling so sad that there wasn't more I could do to help my mom get better.

When Amy Winehouse died in 2011, I felt profound sorrow. Sure, I was a fan, but not a huge fan per se; I only owned Back to Black and at the time of her death that album was nearly six years old, it wasn't exactly in heavy rotation at that point. What I felt sad about--what I still feel sad about--was how lonely her life must have been. It's been reported that her last hours were spent drinking alone in her home, occasionally forcing her bodyguard to watch YouTube videos of her singing. If that image doesn't completely break your heart, you must be a robot. A lot of people talk about her "wasted" talent, and I don't think that's fair. Of course I'm sad that I'll never get to hear a new Amy Winehouse song, but I'm even more sad that she battled her addictions so publicly and for so long, but ultimately lost. I'm sad that Amy Winehouse needed to numb herself rather than truly experience her life. I'm sad for Amy for all same reasons that I'm sad for my mom.

I know it seems like I've written several paragraphs about Amy Winehouse but not a single word about Amy the film, but to watch the film is to sit with these feelings for two hours without coming away with any true understanding of what exactly went wrong for her. If that sounds like a bad review please know that it isn't. This movie is thoughtful, honest, and haunting in equal measures.

Verdict: Watch this movie, it's amazing. I think that even if I wasn't a fan of Amy Winehouse and even if my life hadn't been impacted by addiction or overdose, I would still be moved by this movie, because it's just that well-crafted. Honestly the only thing that I didn't like about this movie was the use of subtitles when Amy was singing. The subtitles were definitely warranted, because without them it sometimes just sounds like a bunch of gibberish, but it was just really poorly executed; the font they chose and the coloring made it look like the movie was released in 2005 rather than 2015 and it was jarring enough to take me out of the scene completely. But that is such a small piece of a movie that is in all other ways amazing, and truthfully I feel a bit of a jerk for bringing it up, so please don't let that stop you. Just watch it already. 4 out of 5 stars.

Every review I've seen of this game (including the one that convinced me to download it) says that the less you know about the game the better. I'm inclined to agree, but I think you need some context before you decide whether or not this is something you want to spend your money and time on. The official blurb from the game's website sums it up quite nicely: In 1994 a British woman is interviewed seven times about her missing husband. This is her story.

In Her Story, you are an unknown person who has gained access to a police department's computer database, presumably to determine what this woman does or does not know about her husband's disappearance. This is done by searching various keywords (i.e., "murder", which is not really a spoiler because the game starts you off with this search) and viewing the video clips associated with that keyword. The video clips are from seven interviews that took place over approximately two weeks in the summer of 1994, and the search results are not in chronological order; usually the only thing they have in common is the keyword. You are limited to a maximum of five video clips for each keyword, which is actually a positive rather than a negative in my eyes because you aren't overwhelmed by the prospect of sifting through 43 video clips.

The game design (an outdated computer desktop) is charmingly retro and simplistic, making me yearn for the days of flying toaster screensavers and Ski Free. This self-contained game design is once again a positive rather than a negative because there are very few distractions. With the exception of a clock, a mini DOS game, and a few .text documents that scream "READ ME!", there's nothing to do but focus on the task at hand. This also leaves you susceptible to the occasional glimpse of your own reflection in the computer's monitor, which startled me every single time it happened.

At the risk of sounding like a Dumb American, I had one hell of a time understanding the dialogue from the game's trailer, which is strange because I have British family members and I usually don't have any trouble understanding accents. This isn't clear from the trailer or any of the reviews that I read, but all of the videos are subtitled, so if that's a concern for you rest assured that you'll be just fine (I almost didn't download the game because I worried I wouldn't have much success if I couldn't understand what was being said in the videos!).

Verdict: It's not possible to discuss the story without spoiling the experience, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that the plot is intriguing enough to keep you playing. One thing that I intially found frustrating was the realization that there really isn't an ending in the traditional sense of the word; it’s entirely up to you when you want to stop (you'll be propmpted by a pop-up chat message when the game thinks you've unconvered enough clues to stop playing), but there isn't really any way to lose the game. Even if you watch every single video clip (there's an icon on the "desktop" within the game that tells you how many of the video clips you've seen), you might still never figure out the real story, so if you're uncomfortable with ambiguity this might not be the game for you. That being said, the more I think about the game the more I come to appreciate this ending, or lack thereof; my day job requires me to interact on a regular basis with law enforcement and detectives in particular, and the fact is that even the best detectives can never know with absolutely certainty what happened in any case. I'm pretty sure that I know what happened in the case, but I'll never know for sure, which is as real as it gets. My biggest complaint is that I finished this game far too quickly; I don't know the average amount of time it takes people to play through this game, but after less than two hours of playing (spread out over two days) the tell-tale pop-up chat message appeared indicating that I'd uncovered most of the game's secrets. Because this game is non-linear, the game is going to unfold differently for every person that plays it, and so this may not be an issue for everyone. At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, I'm a really good listener (I have to be for my day job), and I notice when words and concepts are repeated, which guided my gameplay for better or for worse. Because I immediately honed in on specific names and phrases, I learned things very early on in the game that may have had more of an impact if left until later in the game. I don't know that there's a way around this because there is no linear way to play this game, but I can't help but resent this game a little bit for taking so little time to figure out. 3 out of 5 stars.