Whether you know him from his groundbreaking first album, Grace, or can only recognize his iconic cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, Jeff Buckley was a force in the rock and folk scenes in the early 90s. Taken from us too soon in a 1997 drowning incident, his legacy is one that is marked by his famous yet absent father, Tim Buckley, and Jeff’s own obsession with music. Documentarian Amy Berg explores his life, his loved ones, and the music that still endures today in the film, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.
Named after a lyric in “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over,” the film opens with personal testimonies from the women who knew him. We meet Rebecca Moore, who first encountered Buckley at a memorial concert for his late father and entered into a two-year relationship with him. Joan Wasser, former violinist for The Dambuilders and his partner when he died, reveals that she still can’t listen to his unfinished second album. Of course, Buckley’s mother talks about raising him, hinting that he was often the parent in the relationship. This comes up a few times but is never explored thoroughly.
This film is for Buckley experts and novices alike, offering a closer look at his notes and drawings while filling in the blanks for those less familiar. The talking-head interviews really bring the subject to life in a way I haven’t seen before in a documentary. I hesitate to give Berg credit for that because every single person lights up when they talk about Buckley, but her choice of interviews, edited by Brian A. Kates and Stacy Goldate, are perfectly curated.
Berg spends some time talking about Jeff’s connection to his father, how he met him for the first time two months before Tim died of a heroin overdose at 28. She walks a fine line between addressing the history between them and having the event define him, something Buckley pushed back against during his career. Using the aforementioned interviews, animation, and of course, his music, Berg builds a full picture of the artist, one both flattering and real, showing just how funny and dickish he could be.
If the goal of It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley is to shine a new light on an artist gone too soon or reiterate the talent and potential we lost, Berg succeeds at it. You leave the film in a state of mourning, in awe of Buckley’s talent but still wondering why he died. Berg doesn’t try to stray from the family’s story that the death was an accident, but she still leaves you wondering if it wasn’t intentional. We may never know the answer, but Buckley is one of the 90s’ most iconic and mysterious figures. People have been trying to make a biopic about him for years, including Brad Pitt, whose Plan B produced the film. If this is our last goodbye to Bluckley on the big screen, this is a good way to go.
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley currently does not have a release date.
