Amy Berg’s It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley plays like someone finally sat you down and said, “Okay, here’s the real story — not the myth, not the Tumblr version, the human one.” And honestly, it works. You can stream it on HBO / Max, which feels about right for a documentary that’s equal parts heartbreak, nostalgia, and “God, remember when music actually mattered.”
The thing that hits first is the songs. They’re just so damn good. Even after all these years, Buckley’s voice still sneaks up on you — that impossible range, that emotional precision, that way he could make a cover feel like he was rewriting the universe from scratch. Every time he opens his mouth in this film, you remember why half the musicians of the ’90s suddenly got very quiet and very earnest.
And the film doesn’t shy away from the fact that Jeff moved through the world with this soft, careful energy — especially around women. That’s what happens when you’re raised almost entirely by your mother: you learn to listen, to pay attention, to treat people like they’re real. It wasn’t some performative “sensitive guy with a guitar” act. It was baked in. You can see it in the way people talk about him — the affection, the frustration, the “God, he was complicated but he meant well” tone that only comes from someone who actually lived in your orbit.
Of course, Tim Buckley shows up — not literally, but as the permanent ghost in the room. The film handles it the right way: not a melodramatic daddy‑issues montage, just the acknowledgment that Jeff inherited a voice and a legacy from a man he barely knew. It’s messy, it’s sad, and it explains a lot without turning the whole thing into a therapy session.
The archival footage is the real treasure here. Home movies, rehearsal tapes, grainy club sets — the kind of stuff that feels like it was rescued from a shoebox under someone’s bed. Brad Pitt helped digitize it all, because apparently, we live in a universe where Brad Pitt is the patron saint of lost Gen‑X memories. Sure. Why not.
And yes, the tragedy is there. The drowning. The abruptness. The “this shouldn’t have happened” ache that never really goes away. But Berg doesn’t wallow in it. She treats it like one chapter — the last one, sure, but not the defining one. The film is much more interested in the living parts: the laughter, the weirdness, the way he’d tilt his head when he was listening, the way people still talk about him like he just stepped out of the room.
By the end, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley feels less like a documentary and more like someone finally telling the truth about a person you thought you already understood. It’s honest, it’s warm, it’s occasionally messy — and it earns every bit of it.
If a Jeff Buckley song has ever sucker-punched you at 2 a.m., this one’s worth your time.
MPAA Rating: Not rated.
Runtime: 116 mins
Director: Amy Berg
Writer:
Cast: Jeff Buckley; Mary Guibert; Ben Harper
Genre: Documentray | Music
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote: "It's just the music. Because when I'm dead, that's the only thing that will be around.
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: August 8, 2025 (limited)
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from Jeff Buckley's inner circle paint a captivating portrait of the gifted musician who died tragically in 1997, having only released one album.
