An Icon Made Vulnerable in “Elton John: Never Too Late”

Elton John: Never Too Late (R.J. Cutler/David Furnish, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

As someone who did not hear much Elton John growing up, I came into this documentary without much context. I had heard some of his big hits like “Rocket Man” and “Crocodile Rock,” but I knew little about his actual life or personality. Ironic, considering he’s one of the biggest rock stars of the last fifty years. So, I was taken aback by how much I learned. Co-directed by R.J. Cutler (Belushi) and David Furnish (who is also John’s husband), Elton John: Never Too Late is an overview of the artist’s life and accomplishments. Now in his mid-seventies, Elton John is refreshingly candid about his experiences with stardom and its consequences. Long-time fanatics probably know most of the stories in this doc, but it’s an excellent primer for younger fans and new fans eager to learn.

Never Too Late began production in 2022 during John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. It would be his last set of performances before retiring from the stage in 2023. Cutler and Furnish structure the film around John’s final North American performance at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. They intercut between vérité-style sequences of John’s current life and flashbacks to major milestones in his career. Said flashbacks are made possible through photographs, animated reenactments, and hours of restored archival footage. Tying it all together is a voiceover taken from John’s recorded conversations with journalist Alexis Petridis while they were writing John’s memoir, Me.

Cutler and Furnish detail John’s entire life story, starting with his abusive childhood growing up in the UK. He was a classically trained pianist who longed to play the rock-and-roll music his parents dismissed. The piano would eventually become his means of both expression and escape. Drawing inspiration from Black performers like Winifred Atwell and Little Richard, he crafted a flamboyant onstage persona that could be everything his parents never allowed him to be. John spent the next several years grinding away with his longtime friend/songwriter Bernie Taupin before hitting it big in the early 1970s.

The rest of the doc shows John skyrocketing to the heights of American stardom, rivaled only by the lows of loneliness and sexual confusion. Much of Never Too Late’s second act describes his tumultuous affair with John Reid, his former manager and first love, which also led to his decades-long battle with cocaine addiction. Despite the physical and emotional abuse Reid put him through, John feared confrontation and had seemingly no frame of reference for a healthy relationship. It’s here where the film is at its most soulful, when John lets the viewer see the toll moments like these took on his body and mind.

This extends to the modern-day segments, where Cutler and Furnish show what John’s priorities are today. He frequently ponders his own mortality and how much time he has left with the people he loves; specifically, Furnish himself and their two children, Zachary and Elijah. John fears that because he became a father late in life, he won’t live long enough to watch them grow up. This becomes his primary motivator for retiring and why his Dodger Stadium performance has to go out on a high.

I appreciated how truthful Elton John: Never Too Late ended up being. It took a subject I knew little about and helped me get inside of his head for a while. Admittedly, the film skips past most of John’s life after leaving John Reid and becoming sober, so the last twenty minutes feel a tad rushed. But Cutler and Furnish make up for that with the strength of John’s overall narrative. I recommend this film to both fans and neophytes alike. Even if you already know Elton John’s story, it’s another thing altogether to hear it in his own words.

George W. Campbell

George W. Campbell is a director/screenwriter/editor from Bowie, Maryland, whose films focus on themes of family and personal relationships. As a Nicaraguan-American filmmaker, he aims to highlight specific parts of his culture and personal experiences (songs, dances, foods, and language).