It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley ★★★★

Released: 13^th February 2026 

Director: Amy Berg 

Jeff Buckley’s tragic story will be familiar to many; his only studio album Grace is regarded as one of the best of the 1990s. He died tragically at the age of 30, yet his music continues to inspire a devoted fanbase over 30 years on from the album’s release in 1994. His story is now brought to life in Amy Berg’s documentary film It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley. While much of the content of the film will be known to fans, it is enlightening for more casual listeners or those who perhaps know the name but aren’t familiar with Buckley’s life and work.  

Berg has built a reputation and acclaim for her approaches to difficult subject matters. This film is more traditional than some of her previous documentary films but still has plenty to offer, doing a fine job here mirroring Buckley’s own early death and posthumous legacy with that of his father Tim, who died aged 28 in 1975.  

We get a glimpse of Jeff the person as well as the musician, diving into his influences from the obvious to more surprising and his friendships with contemporaries like Chris Cornell from Soundgarden. There are some neat sequences about Jeff attending a Page & Plant concert and Robert Plant spotlighting his talent, with Led Zeppelin one of his main influences. He also got to meet Paul McCartney who fondly remembered his father. It’s clear in the film the influence Grace had on the music scene at the time and the pressure its success put on Jeff for the sophomore album that never came, even with all the critical success at the time the album had commercially underperformed. 

This is ultimately a reminder of Buckley’s talent and range and the enduring power of his music. Grace is one of those timeless records that both feels of it’s time and immortalised in the annals of music history. This film unlocks some of its mystery and the man behind the music. It might not rewrite music documentaries but there is much to admire in how personal and intimate Berg makes this feel and the sense of how much the music industry lost when Jeff Buckley passed away and the genius that may have come to pass.