This documentary about Jeff Buckley ought to please followers and function a wonderful introduction to his music for the uninitiated.
PLOT: The life and profession of singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, who posthumously rose to fame after his tragic, mysterious demise at solely thirty years outdated.
REVIEW: One of many methods I choose a documentary is how “inside baseball” it’s for the uninitiated. This strategy is typically obligatory, particularly when your topic’s life has been chronicled at size – similar to one other doc I noticed right here at Sundance, One to One: John & Yoko. But, when the topic is extra area of interest, this strategy doesn’t at all times work because it limits the potential viewers. Such was my worry strolling into It’s By no means Over, Jeff Buckley. Whereas an icon, I need to admit my information of him is proscribed to his iconic cowl of “Hallelujah” and the truth that he died younger. As such, I figured I’d be misplaced watching this.
Fortunately, director Amy Berg (West of Memphis) strikes steadiness, making this a considerate documentary that ought to please devotees of Buckley’s music whereas additionally serving as entry level to those that could not know a lot about him. For many who don’t know, Buckley was a rising star within the mid-nineties, and his music earned him comparisons to Bob Dylan. His debut album, “Grace,” was a average success in North America however a blockbuster in a lot of Europe, and on the time he died (of an unintentional drowning), he was engaged on a second album that many thought can be his breakthrough. After he handed, “Grace” went platinum, whereas his cowl of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” ultimately hit primary and has turn into, arguably, some of the iconic recordings of our period.
Berg’s movie does a wonderful job establishing Buckley’s place within the pantheon and his typically irritating rise to fame. His document firm hyped him as the subsequent massive factor, however his first album fell in need of the anticipated benchmarks. This resulted in him spending shut to a few years sustaining a busy touring schedule that wreaked havoc on his private life and psychological well being.
His household life was sophisticated as properly, with him the son of Tim Buckley, a folk-rock icon who died younger at 28 of a heroin overdose and deserted his son at a younger age. Buckley needed to stay as much as the expectations set by followers of his father whereas additionally wrestling with the truth that he resented his father’s lack of a task in his life and the necessity to set up his personal musical identification.
Most of Buckley’s buddies and intimates are interviewed, together with two vital girlfriends and, most movingly, his mom, with whom he shared an intense however loving relationship (together with her susceptible to unwelcome interactions together with his followers in early web chatrooms). As a music fan, I used to be most fascinated by how he struggled to steadiness his inventive ambitions with a necessity for some business breakthrough, which appeared elusive. His followers have been passionate on the time, with Brad Pitt one notable early acolyte (he additionally served as a producer on this), whereas he was additionally raved about by certainly one of his musical idols, Robert Plant.
Nonetheless, the expectations weighed closely on him, and Berg does job displaying how a delicate soul like him needed to wrestle with the expectations positioned on him by an business that noticed him as a marketable product. Paradoxically, in demise, he turned the money cow the corporate seemingly wished him to be, though watching this one can’t assist however lament how he would have seemingly gone on to nice issues had he lived.
In case you’ve by no means heard of Jeff Buckley or—like me—have restricted information, this can be a good entry level right into a strong legacy of music that’s endured remarkably properly within the twenty-eight years since his passing. Whereas we misplaced him means too younger, nobody can deny his work has given him a level of immortality few obtain.
