Amy Berg’s It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (2025) is a tender, deeply felt documentary portrait of the late musician whose haunting voice and unfinished promise have echoed across generations. The film offers a rich tapestry of never-before-seen footage, personal voice messages, childhood photographs, and interviews with those closest to him.
Rather than mythologizing Buckley, Berg delves into the man behind the legend—his fraught relationship with his absent father Tim Buckley, his fierce bond with his young mother Mary Guibert, and the profound emotional and creative ties with romantic partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser.
Through haunting recital clips at Sin-é, interplay with bandmates, and reflections from contemporaries like Aimee Mann and Ben Harper, the documentary maps Buckley’s eclectic influences—from Nina Simone, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Led Zeppelin to Shostakovich—and how they coalesced into his singular artistry.
The film also confronts his struggle with sudden fame, showcased by his discomfort at appearing in People’s “50 Most Beautiful,” which he famously tried to bury.
While Buckley’s accidental drowning in 1997 cut his path short, Berg’s film sustains his music, presence, and emotional legacy, layered with love, longing, and unresolved possibility.
