Next Big Picture: “ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE”
By Dan Bayer
October 9
THE STORY – Elton John looks back on his life and the early days of his 50-year career as he prepares for his final concert in North America.
THE CAST – Elton John
THE TEAM – R. J. Cutler, David Furnish (Directors/Writers) & Trevor Smith (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 102 Minutes
Elton John’s songs have soundtracked the lives of almost everyone in the English-speaking world at this point. From the raucous rock & roll of “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” to the campy honky-tonk of “Crocodile Rock” to the romantic grandeur of his Oscar-nominated songs for “The Lion King,” John has cemented his place in pop culture history many times over. Since coming clean about his battle with alcoholism in the 1990s, he’s also been highly outspoken about his own failings as a human being at the peak of his career. When he decided to stop touring in 2022, he had spent the better part of his life on the road but embarked on one last tour, concluding at LA’s Dodger Stadium, the site of his very first big North American concert, where he ascended to the rarest heights of superstardom. “Elton John: Never Too Late,” the new documentary about the British recording artist, follows John in the months leading up to that final show and in the five years he first hit it big. While directors R.J. Cutler and David Furnish (John’s husband of almost twenty years) don’t glean anything particularly new about John’s well-documented career, they do showcase a wealth of never-before-seen material from John’s personal archives, making a must-see for fans, and an entertaining piece of cinema for more casual listeners.
If you’ve seen “Rocketman,” Dexter Fletcher’s biopic musical starting Taran Egerton as John, none of the biographical information here will come as any surprise: Born Reginald Dwight and raised by rigid parents (his mother beat him with a wire brush to potty train him), John was a musical prodigy able to play just about anything immediately after hearing it. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music but lacked the technical ability to be a classical pianist. He started playing in pubs at the age of fifteen and eventually started a band with friends called Bluesology. Magic happened when, by chance, an A&R exec at Liberty Records gave him some lyrics written by Bernie Taupin. The two musical soulmates have worked on songs together since the day they met in 1967, first for others and then for John. Recording his self-titled second album, produced by the geniuses behind David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” “scared me shitless,” John says as he was recording with a live orchestra. On the success of the album’s second single, “Your Song,” John performed a legendary series of shows at the Troubadour in Los Angeles that made him a huge name in America. Over the first half of the ’70s, John recorded and released nine albums, the last six of which all reached number one in the US, culminating in a performance at LA’s Dodger Stadium that cemented his superstar status.
This incredible creative period as John “stumbled into popularity” took its toll on his psyche, even as he proudly touts that he never took his personal life onstage with him. “Elton John” had become a persona he used to rebel against the way he grew up, donning ever more ridiculous costumes and adopting a performance style modeled after Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Ever a candid interviewee, whether in the present day or the 1976 Rolling Stone interview that serves as the main narration for the ’70s timeline, John knew he didn’t have the sex appeal of Bowie or Mick Jagger, so he decided to make the piano a part of the performance, turning his playing style into a visualization of the music as much as he could. The video from this time period is electric, capturing the performer strutting around the stage in getups that would make Liberace jealous and pounding on the piano with ferocious fervor. The most stunning archival material revolves around John’s friendship with John Lennon and the recording of their 1974 collaboration “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night,” which John bet Lennon would go to number one. When it did, Lennon joined John onstage at a concert unannounced. The concert footage is spectacular (it would be Lennon’s last major live performance), but hearing John talk about how Yoko Ono reached out in advance to see the show without Lennon’s knowledge and what happened afterward makes it feel even more special.
Throughout, John offers nuggets of insight into his process, including archival footage of him talking through the writing process of “Tiny Dancer,” which forms a lovely parallel with footage of a recording session for the modern reinterpretation of the ’70s hit, “Hold Me Closer.” Footage of him interviewing younger recording artists for his popular podcast showcases his appreciation for music and his impact on the industry in equal measure. His openness about his low points provides a peek behind the curtain of his most successful period, and images of his diaries from the time show just how busy the life of a popular recording artist can be. Despite the wealth of material and unparalleled access, the film stays closely focused on John’s music and personal perspective on his life, with very few other interviewees outside of John’s family. More time spent on the process behind his outrageous stagewear would have been appreciated, although the nod to Bob Mackie’s sequined Dodgers uniform only further cements Mackie’s status as the most important stagewear designer of the ’70s. Hearing more from John’s touring band, who have apparently been with him since the ’70s, would have also added more color and detail to the picture the film paints of that period.
The ups and downs of John’s well-documented story are familiar in structure, if not in specific detail, to most viewers, making the film feel like any other documentary about other musicians. Still, it’s impossible to resist applauding when John takes the stage at Dodger Stadium once again for the final stop on his final world tour. “Elton John: Never Too Late” tells John’s story with the same panache and soul that have made him such a musical icon. Combined with that treasure trove of rare archival material, it’s enough to make the film well worth the cost of a Disney+ subscription.
