User reviews

This is the second documentary about Buckley (the first, "Everybody Here Wants You," was produced by the BBC in 2002), and this one is better in nearly every way.

The filmmaker has chosen to tell the story of his life and all-too-brief career mainly through his mother, Mary Guibert, and two previous partners, artist Rebecca Moore and musician Joan Wasser, which brings an intimacy that illuminates his creative spark and inner life, dreams, struggles, personality, and character beautifully, warts and all. Former bandmates and friends round out the picture of a talented, complicated artist who burned brightly and all-too-briefly. It's a must-see for anyone who appreciates his musical legacy and loves a good biographical documentary. It's appropriately detailed and quite moving. I felt myself welling up with tears more than once, as his music was a big part of my 20s. The stories and testimonies of his former partners, in particular, are touching and well done, revealing sides to him that flesh out the rock star and make him human and fragile.

But the story is occasionally and oddly incomplete. One noteworthy former girlfriend, Elizabeth Fraser (formerly of Cocteau Twins), who was a big influence on him musically and who is also famous for having sung a legendary cover of one his father's most famous songs, "Song to the Siren" (in 1983, when Jeff was just 17), is absent entirely from the narrative. Even Cocteau Twins' influence on him as a musician and singer has been excised, even though he was known to occasionally -- for fun -- cover some of their songs in his intimate Sin-é live sets. (He even recorded an unreleased sketch of a duet with Fraser of his song, "All Flowers in Time (Bend Towards the Sun)," which one can find online if you look hard enough.) Much time is spent on his love of other artists like Led Zeppelin, however.

Fraser's relationship with him, which was roughly from around 1993/1994, during his rise to fame, was not a secret -- she wrote songs about him, partially dedicated Cocteau Twins' final album to him in 1996, and co-wrote the hit Massive Attack song "Teardrop" about him following news of his death -- so who knows why all of that was left out. Even if she didn't want to be interviewed (as she had been for the BBC film), excluding her and her band entirely from his biography felt like a mistake, as it was a much less predictable musical association than Zeppelin or some of the other influences that were explored.

So, sometimes the film seemed to be aiming to craft a specific narrative rather than tell the whole story. But every good storyteller edits out something they wish they could include! I just wish this film had been just a bit more thorough, as some of what was omitted is actually rather interesting. And again, it needn't have required Fraser being on camera, but perhaps without her it simply didn't work and had to be cut.

To be sure, the film recaptures the stunning news of his untimely death in a way that feels painfully fresh, and reminds us that Buckley was a gifted artist whose loss continues to be felt -- in music, art, and not least by those who were closest to him.

"It's Never Over" is a fitting and moving tribute to Buckley's life and career.

[UPDATE: I subsequently learned that Elizabeth Fraser declined to be interviewed for this film, which is consistent with her inclination towards privacy. Too bad neither she nor Cocteaus were mentioned, but if she wasn't willing to be interviewed it might have fallen flat on screen.]

The footage of Jeff Buckley performing and singing was absolute magic. Amy Berg handled many of the pratfalls of documenting a talented singer who died young with a deft hand, never letting the supporting cast and commentaries slide into idolatry. However, I can't help but think there was a LOT that was left unsaid, particularly from the women in his life. The two scenes that felt the rawest were the footage of him singing his own material for the first time in Sin-e (you really could have heard a pin drop), and when a journalist asked him where he saw himself in ten years. No one will ever know what went through his mind when he waded into the river, but I, for one, will always wonder what music he could have made if he had lived.

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Jeff Buckley was one of a kind whom we lost way too young. With this new documentary about his career and life, director Amy Berg, while follows the predictable biographical documentary structure that does feel repetitive, still carries an solid emotional journey to explore what made Jeff famous and important and his important musical work. Using good archive footage, participant interviews and discussions, it helps to add flavor and meat to what made Jeff special, his ideas, his background and an understanding of his personality in general. Allowing viewers to get into his world and learn what made him special.

With good music choices and styles throughout, Berg approaches things appropriately and emotionally, helping tone engage with the emotions and perspectives well. I am not familiar with Jeff's music but the documentary does offer a lot to let you learn about him. Despite some pacing issues and with the predictable structure that does make things feel a tad dry with its ambitious tone, still, you feel the blues and vibe well.

I'm kind of surprised a music documentary about Jeff hasn't been made sooner, especially with how his legacy and music has changed over these years.

I wish there were more documentaries about Jeff Buckley out there, his untimely death was so tragic and i wish we could have heard more of him.

This documentary is incredible, you tell everyone who was apart of the project really cared about the subject matter and the music of Jeff Buckley in general, I loved the previous Amy berg documentary about janis joplin so I am genuinely looking forward to what more she decides to do in the future even if it isn't a music documentary.

Absolutely brilliant piece of media, go watch it if you haven't it's inspiring and deeply moving/tragic.

(Idk what else to write because of the character limit)

Jeff wasn't ever looking to be a worshipped idol (but oh how I did worship him!) so footage of him sharing himself (outside of performances) is not abundant, however director Amy Berg and team expertly crafted this film with his art and writings, photos, sound, and color-as well as interviews and so much of his music-to enhance and expand on the spirit of who he was as a person, partner, son, friend, bandmate, performer, and it buoyed me along with out feeling lacking at all. I wept at the end of this film from just the sheer loss of this human spirit and talent.

I'm embarrassed to admit that Jeff Buckley's rise to fame, and tragic end completely escaped me when it happened in the '90s. So watching this movie was like opening a time capsule and finding the roughest, but most beautiful diamond in the world. Words simply cannot begin to describe the depth & breadth of his talent. This doc is worth seeing for that reason alone. But beyond that, his brilliant talent and tragic life story makes for an irresistible, compellingly narrative story. That's the second reason to see it. My hope is this film will allow new generations to discover him, and keep his memory and music alive.

Truly amazing definitely the best documentary's I've ever watched it's truly a work of art this is an absolute must watch and it's absolutely incredible to watch his life and what obstacles he had to face to become what he is famously known for. Also I love the fact that so many old interviews were used.

I'm so happy that Jeff got to be the partial narrator in this documentary. It makes things just that much more of a gut punch.

It reminds me of "Montage of Heck," but warmer, better, and somehow more emotional. I felt closer to Jeff in this, than I was expecting and was sure glad I was curled under a blanket to hide sometimes when it got emotional.

This documentary had me in tears almost every time that Mary Guibert (Jeff Buckley's mom) was on the screen. I've always known that Buckley was one of the most singularly musically talented human beings to ever walk the earth, but watching this film brought his story, his pain, and his humanity to life for me in ways that I know will stick with me for a very long time. Thinking about what could have been is devastating, but the film, and his performances within it, are absolutely spellbinding.

A documentary for people who dont like documentaries. Totally senseless edits, effects, collages that do nothing but distract from the subjects. This doesnt feel like a documentary for adults. Significant events/individuals are excluded, other aspects of his life are senselessly white washed. I came away feeling like i had watched a gimmicky voyeurs fantasy about him instead of a serious examination of his legacy and his motivations. I should probably give this more than 1 star but im piiiiiissssssed.

Here's the thing yeah it's really good. You could watch this movie many times just because it's charismatic. It's beautiful how the viewer gets to touch base with the artist.

The other thing about this thing is that Amy Berg chose not to discuss my sweetheart the drunk recording sessions. Buckley met and worked with Tom Verlaine. Buckley did not like the recordings that Verlaine produced for his second album. He left the state of New York to go to Memphis to record record his second album. It's quite revealing that Buckley was living there and not just there to produce the record but the thrust of Buckley's reason for going down there is muted because the director didn't address this album by name or discuss the music. Mary Gilbert references the recording in the beginning of the documentary Memphis frames where he was to record the music, but the documentary skips over discussing the music itself. This appears to have been done out of respect for Buckley who was unsatisfied with the recordings. But he made the recordings with Verlaine and he died in support of re-recording his music and the music is never discussed.

This is a great documentary. Jeff was an artist-artist and a musician's-musician.. Pure as they come. Forever Beholden to all that are grateful for his music and gift. He was not just a generational talent, but a a talent for centuries infinite in the universe of love, art, and music. Watch this doc! RIP JB.

This "documentary" of images and clips with commentary was the biggest pile of nothing. I would say it's the worst piece of "cinema" I've seen in my life. This man has lived the same life as 30% of America besides his fame and yet, the director of this film tried to pose it as a sad life. Nothing about it was sad and all I have to say is, you will not like it, DO NOT WATCH IT.

Greetings again from the darkness. The Music Box series at HBO brings us this documentary from Amy Berg (Oscar nominated for DELIVER US FROM EVIL, 2006), who profiles the tragic tale of the immensely talented Jeff Buckley. When he died in 1997 at age 30, Buckley had only released one album, "Grace". Many musicians and critics call it one of the best albums ever. This film tells us how he reached that level.

Throughout the film we hear stories and memories from Jeff's mother, Mary Guibert, and his ex-girlfriends, Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser. Mom recalls baby Jeff 'vocalizing' to the radio from his bassinet. She also explains how Jeff's father, Tim, left to pursue his own career rather than stick around to be part of a family. Yes, you might recognize the name Tim Buckley. He was a popular musician who died at age 28 from a heroin overdose. Seventeen-year-old single mom, Mary, and Jeff 'raised each other' and Jeff always had a close bond with mom. Young Jeff even got to see his dad perform once, and ultimately sang at his dad's funeral.

Much of the film is dedicated to detailing how Jeff honed the skills to sync with his other-worldly singing voice. He was a poetic songwriter in the vein of Bob Dylan and Morrissey, while Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin influenced his musical style. Just to highlight his uniqueness, Jeff also covered Nina Simone, and is best remembered for his haunting cover of Leonard Cohen's iconic "Hallelujah". Singer Aimee Mann ('Til Tuesday) also provides some perspective from a musician's viewpoint.

One of my favorite nuggets here is how Jeff found a good (re)use for Michael Bolton cassettes, but a key point is how his tremendous debut album was so unique that it proved to be an uneasy fit for radio play. Director Berg includes a great deal of archival footage that I'd never seen - both concerts and interviews. Jeff was a young man who suffered from depression, and would likely receive better treatment these days. His death in Wolf River in Memphis still seems a bit confusing in light of how he had spent the previous couple of weeks. We hear the final voicemail he left for his mother, and it's heartbreaking. Music was Jeff's entire being, and a reminder that some souls simply burn too hot to last long.

Premieres on HBO on December 4, 2025.

For entire generations who believe feelings are of utmost importance, this documentary will speak to you. And, yeah, I get it...we boomers & those before us were raised to not emphasize emotions or allow them to rule us. So, fast-forward to the '90s generation (and later) & we've tipped too far over & way past an acceptable line where feelings should be considered, or allowed to be the number one consideration in all of life's daily events.

When a productions opens up to emotional dialogue & tears, I'm pretty much checked-out at that point. I skipped over most of the documentary & watched the sad, inevitable ending to the life of a melancholy man.

Not for me.

I was ready to love this docu because of Jeff Buckley's music. And I appreciate how it wove in his father's influence, or sadly a lack of it. (I'm a huge fan of his dad as well.) But it seemed to leave out a good bit of Jeff's music. And it appeared to spend too much time showing overly ironic film effects. It did manage to show him as a likable, chaotic person. (And that was a big part of what drove off his lovers.) And it did work in Buckley's sharp awareness of his shortcomings in his well-written lyrics. However, even with a number of strong points to the film in my opinion it's a film more about itself and less of the music than I would've liked.

It's Never Over. Jeff Buckley 2025.

The shorth life and untimely death of Jeff Buckley death, or another in the catalogue of Jeff's surviving friends and relatives telling all to whoever is prepared to listen.

That does sound cynical, it is meant to be.

Lets get back to basics, I love Jeff Buckley, I was privileged to have seen him in 1993 (date maybe wrong), at Reading Festival. It wasn't the main stage it was the upcoming alternative stage . He was the penultimate 4th from last on the bill. Headline acts were the Tindersticks, American Music Club and Jeff Buckley . What a line up. It was the last Reading festival I ever went to and what a way to end it all. (I forgot to mention They Might Be Giants were also in that bill. All of the acts had an aching melancholy beauty, not so much TMBG.

What I'm getting at is I was a fan of Jeff, more so a massive fan of Tim Buckley, which I guess would have pissed Jeff off a bit. He is at pains throughout the film to tell us he wasn't anything like his late estranged father Tim.

So what we get from the film, is various taste makers, relatives, friends, lovers, and Jeff of course bigging up the myth of Jeff Buckley.

Jeff like's blowing his own trumpet.

This is where the films fall flat I've heard it all before. Likewise the majority of the footage is old and expertly cobbled together from other sources.

Musically it is great, but overall its pretty sad, his early accidental demise and his estrangement from both his father and at times his mother.

Notable absences are his step dad who brought him up and of course the Cocteau's Liz Fraser, who he briefly had an affair.

I still listen to his music, Grace is a wonderful album.

But I can take it or leave all the footage of his acolytes feeding at his feet.

A disappointing 6/10

I hope to see at some point Dream Brother the drama about Tim and Jeff Buckley brief and fruitless relationship, being a drama it will at least be fun.

It's amazing to see and hear so much of Jeff Buckley in this, although it's constantly interrupted by over editing and tacky graphics. Mainly the issue is of perspective, it focuses on woman close to him but mostly bypasses the gravity of his impact. It feels as if it's trying to "reveal" of emphasize the women behind the man. But in the end, he's the one we're here to see.

This is a documentary about musical star Jeff Buckley. I wasn't a fan at the time. I knew that everybody in the industry loves him. Whenever I previously tried his music for a few seconds, I found his boundless singing voice to be too boundless. Now that I've sat down and listened to him and watched his story. I get it. He's a free-flowing emotional singer. I can see why artists love him. At his core, he is unbound emotionalism.

It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley is a deeply affecting documentary that reshapes the way many viewers understand Jeff Buckley-not just as the voice behind an iconic rendition of "Hallelujah," but as a complex, driven, and ultimately fragile artist whose life was defined by pressure, expectation, and emotional weight. The film works best when it dismantles the myth and replaces it with a human being who was far more than a single song or a fleeting moment of fame.

One of the documentary's strongest elements is its exploration of Buckley's upbringing, particularly his relationship-or lack thereof-with his father, Tim Buckley. Tim's fame, drug abuse, and emotional absence cast a long shadow over Jeff's life, and the film makes it clear that Jeff actively resisted becoming a replica of his father. Raised primarily by his mother, Jeff Buckley forged his own identity, even changing his name early on to distance himself from the legacy that both haunted and followed him.

The documentary does an excellent job chronicling Buckley's meteoric rise after the release of Grace, emphasizing how remarkable it is that a single studio album could leave such an enduring cultural footprint. What becomes increasingly tragic is realizing that Grace was not meant to be a final statement, but rather the opening chapter of a career that was aggressively accelerated by industry demands. The pressure to immediately follow up that success becomes a recurring source of tension throughout the film.

Interviews with family members, collaborators, and those closest to Buckley paint a portrait of an artist who was intensely devoted to his craft but deeply conflicted about fame. The documentary does not sensationalize his personal struggles, including questions around his identity or emotional volatility, instead presenting them as part of a larger pattern of exhaustion and artistic burnout. His three-year tour schedule, in particular, feels less like momentum and more like an inevitable collapse waiting to happen.

What stands out most is how the film contextualizes the era in which Buckley was working. The late '80s and early '90s music industry was unforgiving, often prioritizing output over wellbeing. Artists were pushed relentlessly, and Buckley's story becomes emblematic of how creative brilliance was frequently exploited rather than protected. The documentary subtly critiques that system without ever turning Buckley into a passive victim.

Ultimately, It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley is a sobering reminder of how much was lost when Buckley died. The film leaves you with a lingering sense of possibility-of albums never made, risks never taken, and artistic evolution that never had the chance to unfold. For anyone interested in music history, the pressures of fame, or the human cost of artistic obsession, this documentary is essential viewing and a poignant tribute to an artist whose story deserved to be fully told.

I don't know how, given that I was into all sorts of arts during his moment in the sun, but I was starting a new life in a new place and was so busy during this man's heyday, somehow he passed me by. I knew his name, though not sure why, but I don't recall ever hearing him sing. I'm not even sure why I watched this documentary, but I'm glad I did. What an immense talent. He seemingly could sing anything and had one helluva beautiful voice when he was in the mood to show it off. This doc also shows us what seems to be a very nice and very interesting guy. Many times I thought it was going to slip into him being a bisexual as it struck me that is what he was, but apparently I read him wrong. I've since listened to "Grace" and it is a pretty great recording that hasn't dated much. Fans should not, and probably won't, miss this and novices like me should be impressed, and saddened, about the short life of a very talented man.

I'm sure Jeff Buckley was a lovely person and my thoughts go out to the people who knew and loved him but he wasn't a great songwriter and he never learned how to use that miraculous voice in a way that didn't sound like overkill. So much of what he recorded sounds like a guy trying to either spruce up or distract people from not very interesting material with high wire vocal gymnastics. The right producer could've taught him to harness the power of that voice, to limit the flourishes and let the songs breathe and the right arranger could've limited the crescendoes or at least put them in better spots. He was an interesting person who needed a few more years to hone his craft and he very much needed the right collaborators (he had found one in Joan Wasser, his girlfriend at the time of his death and a brilliant musician) to guide him. The biggest impression I got of him from this film was of a young man whose thoughts were going in a hundred different directions at once, someone who had trouble switching his mind off as he was interested in so many different things. I may not have liked "Grace" - his first and only proper LP - but he had at least one great record in him and the tragedy is he never got the chance to record it.