Elton John: Never Too Late
(USA, 102 min.)
Dir. R.J. Cutler, David Furnish
Programme: Galas (World premiere)
Elton John fans will certainly enjoy Never Too Late, b ut John Lennon fans might like it even better. This upbeat if conventional documentary by R.J. Cutler (Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry) and John’s husband David Furnish (a producer on the 2019 Elton biopic Rocketman) hits most of the expected music doc notes aside from an extended sequence that details the friendship between the two British music icons. This intimate music doc boasts a roster of greatest hits, but welcome insight into the vulnerability of two music icons.
The film takes a while to get to the Lennon segment, however, as it offers the usual cradle to present-day story of John’s career. Recollections about the journey from Reginald Dwight to becoming Elton John serve as meat sandwiched between contemporary footage of John’s 2022 farewell tour. He wants to end it where it all began: in Los Angeles’s Dodger Stadium. John credits the two nights he played there to packed houses in 1975 for catapulting to fame. It’s therefore only appropriate to bring the story full circle by going out in style with the LA fans who helped make him who is today.
Admittedly, the frame of a final concert in a place of historical significance parallels Never Too Late’s fellow TIFF music doc Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe. The latter doc follows opera singer Andrea Bocelli as he readies for a show at an iconic venue that housed a concert for the Three Tenors. The old concert and new one offer an obvious and convenient framing device in both films, but arguably serve as evidence of growing formula among when music docs. Just about every singer has one now, so reviewing them can feel like playing Mad Libs.
At the same time, any similarity between films accentuates strengths in craft, access, and cleanliness of storytelling. Never Too Late, familiarly as it is, marks superior work of filmmaking compared to similar bio docs. Sure, it hits all the expected story beats, but it’s a thoroughly engaging and artfully assembled work with a healthy range of archival material handsomely digitized and a wider range of talking heads.
Even though this doc has fewer degrees of separation between the star and the creator, not that there was much distance to begin with, it feels far less self-serving than many of its contemporaries. The film offers toe-tapping proof that musically and culturally, few artists have a global impact like Elton John.
That impact finds a touching case study in the John Lennon story. Elton remembers his friend’s reluctant agreement to take the stage after a long absence and join him in a 1974 concert at Madison Square Garden. He recalls buying Yoko Ono a ticket for the show and keeping it a secret from Lennon, who confided to his friend that he couldn’t bear the thought of performing with Ono in the audience. The rest is history as the concert – Lennon’s last — helped reunite the couple until the former Beatle’s death.
This unique glimpse into the intimate lives, loves, and insecurities of the stars, told with some notable archival material, lends some gravitas to the tale even if occupies a seemingly inordinate amount of space in the documentary. (“Candle in the Wind” doesn’t even get a mention!) Given the range of John’s accomplishments and his prolific body of work, though, Cutler and Furnish do justice to John’s story and the audience’s time by offering new material in depth in lieu of taking the Wikipedia route.
The rest of the film traverses a brisk range of material: John’s output, his biggest hits, his homosexuality, his struggles with addiction, his sobriety, his podcast, his family, and everything in between. There are some genuinely touching moments with John’s family and children, while a trip to the Troubadour shows how modest John’s origins really were. It’s a small joint!
If Never Too Late has any real competition, though, it’s hard to outdo the exhilarating electricity of the recent dramatic take on John’s life in Rocketman. However, the doc serves as a nice spiritual sequel to that work by offering the acts of John’s life that follows the story arc of the drama. Even in a sea of sameness, some waves roll greater than others do.
