For her ‘unofficial’ 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Johnson had so little music to work with that the opening chord of “Hard Day’s Night” pretty much had to carry the whole movie. You might think that history would repeat for Back to Black, the short but fast-lived story of Amy Winehouse, who rose to international fame in her teens and never saw 28, never mind 30. Surprisingly, the Winehouse estate is all in, and although one might argue that the singer’s trainwreck notoriety has been slightly snow-washed to protect the living, there’s still a surprisingly hard edge here, in a rare film that gives rock’n’roll agency to a woman for once, like a reverse-angle Sid & Nancy.
