'Elton John: Never Too Late': Toronto Review

Dirs: R.J. Cutler and David Furnish. US. 2024. 102mins

Threadbare tour-bio documentary Elton John: Never Too Late combines the audio from a 2019 interview with the ’Crocodile Rock’ singer and footage from his final North American shows in 2022. Directors R.J. Cultler and David Furnish (the singer’s husband) use vintage footage and animation to jump between the 1970s and his recent tour, with Dodger Stadium as the throughline. There in 1975, John, dressed in an iconic sequined Dodger baseball uniform, became the first solo rock act to sell out a stadium and, in 2022, it was the location of his final concert in America. Yet neither story feels fresh. In fact, they’re both so thin it’s difficult to even call this a puff piece. 

 The only thing holding Elton John: Never Too Late together is the songs

A Disney documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late premieres as a Gala Presentation at Toronto and then heads to London before embarking on a limited US theatrical run in November and bowing on Disney+ in the US on December 13. It’s a challenge to know who will find this film of spare parts appealing. Surely, diehard fans of the singer know the minutest parts of his biography already – not least thanks to the far-more-candid 1997 documentary Tantrums & Tiaras, also directed by Furnish – and casuals are likely to prefer the crowd-pleasing version of his life seen in the musical biopic Rocketman. Ultimately, this will likely blend in with other rote ‘print the legend’ films. 

It’s clear early on that this film is poorly conceived. It deploys the common contemporary documentary framework of building a story around audio tapes – in this case with John, conducted by journalist Alexis Petridis for the singer’s 2019 memoir Me. Unlike other instances where this has happened (in films about Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick and Princess Diana, for example), this subject is alive and well. In the hands of Cutler and Furnish, the audio that powered John’s frank autobiography is re-tooled unimaginatively to recount the basic beats of John’s life: his abusive family; his musical training and influences (Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Winifred Atwell); and his time playing backup for major African American act like the Temptations, the Drifters and Patti La Belle. 

That backgrounding carries viewers to the 1970s, when John and his songwriter partner, lyricist Bernie Taupin, went on a prolific five-year run that witnessed the singer produce 20-plus albums and countless hits, and headline Dodger stadium. It also included John confining himself in an abusive relationship with his manager and partner John Reed, and developing a raging coke habit to self-medicate his depression and loneliness. Once again, none of this is particularly new information. Rather, the pleasure derived from these scenes will mostly amount to vintage photos, footage of his star-making show at LA’s Troubadour in 1970, video of ’Yellow Brick Road’s recording session, and a touching story about how his duet with John Lennon at Madison Square Garden — a show that would be Lennon’s final live performance — led to the Beatles singer reuniting with Yoko Ono. 

Hearing the same stories again would be alright if Cutler and Furnish didn’t force feed an undercooked contemporary storyline into the edit. The present-day sequences, which weave in and out of the walks down memory lane, are frustratingly empty. We begin nine months out from John’s 2022 Dodger Stadium gig, and check in with him at each major stop. As opposed to the frank biographical information, these behind-the-scenes moments – John video chatting with his kids, recording his podcast ’Rocket Hour’ and thanking his longtime band for their wonderful playing — are overly controlled. You know you’re only seeing the best of the singer. 

When intertwined, the two timelines struggle to cohere to a satisfying end. The entire final gig at Dodger Stadium is anti-climatic, totaling three partially performed songs: ’Someone Saved My Life Tonight’, ’I’m Still Standing’, and ‘Your Song’. While it makes sense to spend much of the film abbreviating the jukebox hits for the benefit of time, it’s odd not to let fans luxuriate in these comforting earworms by playing them in their entirety. Because in the end, apart from a few quippy anecdotes, the only thing holding Elton John: Never Too Late together is the songs.