In the years since Jeff Buckley’s shocking death at age 30 in 1997, his estate has sanctioned the release of 10 studio compilations, eight live collections, one box set, eight singles and five video recordings. In addition, there have been a rash of documentaries, produced in various countries around the world, as well as a dramatic depiction of him played by actor Penn Badgley in a movie whose title alludes to his musical father, Greetings from Tim Buckley. Collectively, that places him in the realm of other departed stars, including Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Eva Cassidy, whose catalogues have been mined for every ounce of gold they can possibly produce.
In that context, the title of the new Jeff Buckley documentary, It’s Never Over, could easily read like a threat. Luckily, nothing could be further from the truth. The film winds up giving a largely familiar story a holistic reach like no project before it. However picked over the bones of Buckley’s story may be, director Amy Berg has found fresh flesh by emphasizing the crucial role women played in his life starting with his mother, Mary Guibert, and fanning out to various girlfriends, most of whom are fellow artists who sometimes doubled as spiritual collaborators. Together, they show how a female spirit not only shaped Buckley’s early life, it also provided a foundational part of his art. The earliest songs he sang as a kid were voiced by women, from Diana Ross’s yearning reading of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough to Judy Garland’s self-immolating take on The Man Who Got Away. “I wanted to be a chanteuse,” Buckley says in a vintage audio interview used in the film. “Secretly, I think I wanted to be Nina Simone.”
