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.