Elton John: Never Too Late Review

Elton John: Never Too Late
pulls back the curtain on one of the biggest names in pop and rock, highlighting his career and struggles in wonderful detail. While many documentaries and biopics deliver a stylized version of the subject’s own voice, this documentary uses recordings and interviews from Elton John himself to take a closer look at his decades-long career, and the impressive rise and challenging fall of the star as his career went through the circle of life.

Where Elton John: Never Too Late diverges from other documentaries about the iconic musician is the fact that it picks two points in his career, one near the beginning and one at the end, and paints a picture of how one leads to the other. John speaks through recordings, providing his own insights, and the editing paints a picture of acceptance, growth, love, loss, and learning. But overall, it delivers the message that anything is possible when you follow your dreams and push through the setbacks.

Elton John In His Own Words

Elton John confesses that he is not himself a wordsmith and his nervous and introverted nature comes across in his interviews, despite decades of playing sold-out shows and being a very public-facing musician. Even with trembling nerves and waning confidence, it’s great to hear John talk about his career and the life he’s led, warts and all. Elton John attributes a great deal of his success to luck, having found the perfect writing partner in Bernie Taupin, his long-time musical collaborator and lyricist. But the fact is that Elton is a resilient man who created opportunities and chased his dreams.

While it was not always smooth sailing, Elton is able to clearly relate his journey from a scared young boy looking for approval and affection to the loving father and husband he is today through a medium he has always been able to channel with incredible proficiency. Elton is the music man, with an incredible talent for creating melodies, and intricate soundscapes that deliver emotion and atmosphere, resonating with listeners everywhere.

Elton John: Never Too Late also explores his earliest gigs, as he opened for iconic performers during the 1960s and 1970s, and how that led to an explosion in popularity when he eventually brought his music to the United States. The film uses his performances at Dodgers Stadium, both in 1975 and 2022, to map out his career and explore how challenges in his personal and professional life have taken him on an unforgettable journey and helped him find himself.

An Elton John Story Told In Two Parts

The framing for the documentary cleverly hinges on Elton’s shows in the Dodgers Stadium to illustrate the enormous growth, success, and shifts in his career. In the present, the documentary speaks face to face with Elton in the months leading up to his final concert delivered in the States, as he returns to the Dodgers Stadium where he played a pivotal show back in 1975. When the documentary goes back, it examines the early years of his career leading up to this iconic show.

In the earlier decades, it is clear that Elton is on a journey and struggling to find his way despite enormous success. Challenges in his romantic life, challenges with accepting his own identity, and with being accepted for who he is all result in a young Elton working to come to terms with his success and find peace or happiness. Even in the moments up to this iconic 1975 show, Elton faces some of the biggest struggles of his life and it’s heartbreaking to see.

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Meanwhile, the modern setting reveals an Elton who has found the answers. He finds what he’s looking for in his children, his partner, his friends, and music, but he doesn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. This hopeful and insightful look into the life of such an icon creates an inspiring and beautiful story that stands tall from the beginning until the very end.

Elton John: Never Too Late will be available to stream on Disney+ on December 13. The film is 102 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for drug material, some strong language, sexual references, thematic material including suicide, and smoking.

Pros

• Contrasted storytelling with an approach that syncs up two very different time periods.
• Having direct input from Elton John improved the overall quality and accuracy.

Cons

• It quickly races through topics, with a lot covered in a short span of time and could have benefitted from a slightly more focused approach.