Review: 'It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley' presents the late singer-songwriter in all his contradictions and talent

Documentarian Amy Berg sets a tough assignment for herself in “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”: Getting to know, and allowing us to know, the mind and heart of an essentially unknowable person — a singer and songwriter who, had he lived past 30, been a generational voice on par with Dylan or Springsteen.

Jeff Buckley was born in 1966 in Anaheim, California, to a 17-year-old single mom, Mary Guibert. His father, Mary explains in one of the movie’s many illuminating and heartbreaking interviews, left before Jeff was born. His father was Tim Buckley, an acclaimed folk-rock singer and songwriter who was also considered a “once in a generation” talent.

Mary describes the one time Jeff spent time with his father, in 1975, when Jeff was 8 years old. Mary took Jeff to one of his concerts in Los Angeles, and in the dressing room backstage after the show, Tim invited Jeff to stay with him and his second wife for a week. Shortly after that visit, Tim Buckley died of a drug overdose at age 28. Notably, Jeff was not mentioned in Tim’s obituary.

As Mary tells the story, Jeff was always interested in music, and shared some of his father’s gifts — including a five-octave vocal range and a voracious appetite for every kind of music. He also held a measured antipathy for his father’s legacy. Once Jeff became famous, a journalist asked him what he had inherited from his father; Jeff’s acerbic answer was “People who remember my father — next question.”

After several years trying to break into the music industry, in Los Angeles and New York, Jeff’s “big break” came in an unlikely venue: A 1991 tribute concert for his father. He performed one of Tim’s songs, “I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain,” one written for Jeff and Mary — while wearing one of his father’s jackets. Jeff wasn’t striving to make a career-launching moment, but it sort of happened.

The bulk of Jeff’s story is told by three women: Mary; Jeff’s first New York girlfriend, experimental artist and actor Rebecca Moore, who was the inspiration for most of the songs on Buckley’s only album, “Grace”; and his later girlfriend, musician Joan Wasser, whose band The Dambuilders often opened for Buckley on tour. (Wasser now performs under the name Joan as Police Woman.) Each of these women capture a side of Buckley’s personality, and Berg leaves it to the viewers to figure out where the pieces of the jigsaw fit. 

The movie also reflects on the strange nature of stardom, such as the irony of Buckley’s most famous song not being one he wrote, but his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” (The 2022 documentary “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” commented that after Buckley’s death in 1997, more than a few musicians played “Hallelujah” as a tribute to Buckley — and some might have thought he wrote it.) 

“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” lays out the contradictions of Buckley’s life — such as the fact that he labored to escape his father’s shadow only to end up with a similar career path and early death — without trying to resolve them or pass judgment on them. Berg presents Jeff Buckley’s brief life and extraordinary music as best as anyone can, and all we can do is watch and appreciate the talent that blazed so briefly and brightly.

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‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, August 8, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for strong language, drug references and thematic elements. Running time: 106 minutes.