2025 Sundance Film Festival Movie Review: It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley

I had never heard of Jeff Buckley until I saw that there was a documentary about him at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, looks at a young musical artist who quickly rose to fame only for it to come to a crashing halt after a tragic accident. Normally I wouldn’t go into a documentary like this completely blind, but I am glad I took a chance on this film. It is a fascinating and emotional documentary about an immense talent gone too soon.

Amy Berg’s latest documentary looks at the life and music of Jeff Buckley, an American singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the early 1990s with his rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and his album Grace. Jeff was immensely talented. He had a soulful, multi-octave voice that was full of passion and pain. He was a skilled guitarist and a music history enthusiast, loving all genres of music and being inspired by artists like Led Zeppelin. Berg utilizes several mediums to paint a picture of who Buckley was. We get talking-head interviews from the people he was closest with, like his mother and ex-girlfriends. They show hundreds of photos and videos of Buckley performing and being interviewed, which allow us to hear his perspective on everything from the state of music at the time to life and we see him sing and perform at various ages in life, which was a real treat. He had the presence and skill to be a major star.

There were two surprising things I took from watching It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley. The first was the influence of women in his life. Jeff’s father, musician Tim Buckley, left Jeff and his mother when Jeff was young, so Jeff leaned on his mother quite a bit growing up and even into adulthood. His mother influenced him and as Jeff got old, his girlfriends inspired him and supported him. Jeff was also influenced quite a bit by Nina Simone, with some artists even comparing the two in the way they sang.

The other piece was finding out how badly Jeff struggled with fame. Jeff’s father, though not a huge part of his life, died of a drug overdose at the age of 28. This stuck with Jeff his entire life and he was convinced his life would go the same way. In one interview clip of Jeff, the interviewer asks him where he sees himself in ten years. Jeff, in his twenties during the interview said, “I don’t.” It was a chilling response and one that showed Jeff never thought about his life beyond a certain age. As his fame got bigger, Jeff’s personal life became more of a mess, which included drugs and alcohol, which made his passing all the more tragic because there was no foul play when he died. Berg paints Buckley as a tortured artist who couldn’t shake his destiny.

With the usage of multiple mediums, insightful interviews, and, of course, a great soundtrack, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley is a touching tribute to a gifted artist.

It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley premiered in the Premieres category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

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