Every fairytale has an ending.
After over 50 years on the road, Elton John: Never Too Late follows the musical icon as he prepares for his final North American concert in Dodger Stadium. With each stop on the tour, John is forthright in his feelings on the past as he looks towards his future with his family. By examining his extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows, John shares his heart but also gives hope in the process.
Directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, Elton John: Never Too Late is a beautiful look at the man sitting at the piano, as opposed to his string of hits. By following John on his final tour, the film does a good job balancing past and present. Even though much of the time is spent exploring his youth in the early 70s, one never gets the sense that they’re missing out on too much as John’s openness gives context to his rise to success.
And what a ride it was.
Never Too Late talks about the absolutely obscene amount of fame that John acquired at a young age. Remarkably, over a mere 5 years, John had 7 number one albums out of his first thirteen. Easily one of the most powerful pop stars of his era, we hear the journey that he and his long-running writing partner took as they conquered the world. Although the doc never spends too much time on the songs themselves, Cutler and Furnish do an excellent job weaving his music into their storytelling, giving the film a sense of whimsy. Through the use of animation, Never Too Late makes his rise feel like an otherworldly fairytale. (In fact, the film even shows footage of his live duet with John Lennon, a performance that became Lennon’s final onstage appearance.)
But Never Too Late is less about the music than it is about the man himself.
While he has always been one of music’s greatest live performers, the film counterbalances the shiny glamour of stardom with his quiet demeanour. It’s this emphasis on John’s story that makes Never Too Late such a joy. In every candid moment with the megastar, John bares his soul. We’re allowed to hear the heartbeat behind the sequence jackets and sunglasses as he recants his remarkable rise to fame but, more importantly, the emptiness that he felt inside along the way. Addictions to alcohol and drugs were merely attempts to fill the void left behind by a childhood of abuse. What’s more, John was also wrestling with his sexuality at a time when members of the LGBTQ remained in the closet. In these moments, John is incredibly candid, highlighting the trauma that he experienced and the troubling ways that he attempted to cope with it.
But Never Too Late isn’t a story of darkness. (I mean, the title of the film is positive in and of itself.) Instead, Cutler and Furnish manage to remind us of the light at the end of the tunnel. Watching John perform on his final tour keeps the tone positive as we know how the story ends. As such, we are reassured while they take us through the depth of the valleys that there is another side where John blooms once again. We see him dote over his sons and purposefully build up today’s young musicians via his podcast. We hear his determination to not only survive his addictions but thrive once again. (“It did take me 43 years to learn how to function as a human being, rather than a rock star,” we’re told.)
These are the sorts of stories that last beyond the final curtain. While Disney+ already carries coverage of his final show in Los Angeles in Farewell from Dodger Stadium, it could be argued that Never Too Late is an even greater testament to his legacy. After all, John may have spent the vast majority of his life as a performer but Culture and Furnish allow us to see him as a man. A man of immense talent, of course. But absolutely a man of frailties and battles to fight. It’s in these moments that Never Too Late shines brighter than any spotlight as it reminds us all that who we are as people matters more than the hits we leave behind.
Elton John: Never Too Late is available on Disney+ on Friday, December 13th, 2024.
