50 | MAY 16 • 2024 
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BACK TO BLACK, GREEDY 
PEOPLE, HACKS UPDATE, 
MORE

Back to Black, a big-budget 
biopic about the famous 
British jazz/rock singer Amy 
Winehouse (1983-2011) 
opens in theaters on May 
17. I have written about this 
film before — noting that 
Winehouse fans didn’t like 
the trailers. They expressed 
doubts about the content 
and the singing ability of 
Marisa Abela, 27, who plays 
Winehouse.

I previously noted that 
Abela (whose mother is 
Jewish) is the only Jew to 
appear in the film. But it’s 
worse than I knew “back 
when.” There are six “real” 
Jewish characters in the 
film and, except for Amy 
Winehouse, none is played 
by a Jew. 
These are important roles. 
Five of the six characters 
are on the top of the credits: 
Amy, Amy’s parents, Amy’s 
paternal grandmother, and 
Amy’s first, important agent 
(Nick Shymansky). Down 
the credits, you’ll find Amy’s 
father’s sister. 
Back opened in the U.K. 
last month. The Metacritic 
site has posted 15 reviews 
of Back by respected British 
film critics. Only two reviews 
were raves. Eight critics 
trashed the film, and the 
rest were “on the fence”— 
some good things — some 
bad. 
Abela got pretty good 
reviews from most (she 
can sing). However, most 
critics said that the film was 
way too fictional. They all 
jumped on too-kind depic-
tions of Amy’s father (who 
didn’t want Amy to go into 

drug rehab) and Amy’s low-
life husband, who got her 
on heroin. 
My advice is to wait to see 
Back to Black until it begins 
streaming. Meanwhile, 
you’ll find a much better 
biography on HBO/Max. 
They are now streaming the 
acclaimed, Oscar-winning 
documentary Amy (2015).
Opening in theaters on 
May 16 is Greedy People, a 
comedy mystery. It follows 
residents of a small island 
town as they cope with 
unusual events: a sensation-
al murder and the finding of 
a million dollars.
This small-budget indie 
film was written and direct-
ed by Potsy Ponciroli. He 
also directed and wrote Old 
Henry (2021) an acclaimed 
Western film with a clever 
premise: Billy the Kid, the 
outlaw, wasn’t killed in New 
Mexico (age 21). He moved 
far away, took a new name 
(Henry), and lived the life of 
a family man and a small-
time rancher. Henry made 
10 times its cost in theaters. 
It’s now streaming (free) on 
the Roku channel. 
Tim Blake Nelson, 59 
(The Ballad of Buster 
Scruggs; O, Brother, Where 
Art Thou), starred as Henry/
Billy the Kid. It’s not surpris-
ing that Nelson took this 
role and a role in Greedy 

People. He is a playwright 
who knows how hard it is 
to get a good cast together 
for a low-budget film. He’s 
directed and produced two 
critically acclaimed films 
adapted from his plays. 
One was The Grey Zone 
(2001), about Auschwitz 
prisoners. Good actors, 
including Harvey Keitel, 
David Arquette and Steve 
Buscemi agreed to be in 
this important film. They 
took a modest salary. 
Variety liked Greedy 
People, saying: “[It] should 
please fans of wry crime 
yarns like the Coen Brothers 
Fargo and the edgy and 
smart small-screen outings 
such as Breaking Bad and 
Better Call Saul.”
No source I’ve found 
clearly describes the roles 
played by the cast mem-
bers. I did ferret out that 
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 43, 
co-stars as a police officer, 
and Nelson plays somebody 
hot on the million dollars. 
I do know that another 
Jewish actor, Simon Rex, 
49, is also in the film.
Hacks is a very good 
HBO comedy series that 
got great reviews for its first 
season (2021). It features 
Jean Smart as Deborah, an 
aged popular comedian, 
and Hannah Einbinder, 28, 
as Ava, a struggling come-

dian who took a job writing 
funny stuff for Deborah. 
Einbinder is the daughter 
of Laraine Newman, 72, an 
original SNL cast member.
The second Hacks 
season (2022) had good 
moments, but it was clearly 
not as amusing as the first 
season. I waited to see the 
reviews of the third season 
(began May 3) before writ-
ing about Hacks again. Well, 
the critics who had access 
to this season’s all nine 
episodes loved the third 
season. 
I’ve watched the first two 
episodes of this season, and 
Hacks has its energy back. 
The first episode really sets 
up the very interesting and 
amusing second episode 
(each Thursday, this month, 
two Hacks episodes will 
be shown back-to-back —
except for the one-episode 
finale on May 30).
Hannah and Ava have two 
things in common. Both are 
former stand-up comedians, 
and both identify as bisexual 
(but mostly are into women). 
Hannah dated stand-up 
comedian Alex Edelman, 
35, for about a year. They 
broke-up in 2023.
Oy corner: David Pecker, 
71, the former National 
Enquirer head and Donald 
Trump’s former “shield,” is 
Jewish. I have no doubt. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY TOM.BEETZ - FLICKR

IMDB

BY DANNYB PHOTOS

Amy Winehouse
Marisa Abela
Tim Blake Nelson

