Elton John: Never Too Late

Less a complete statement than an assortment of loosely grouped notions and materials, held together by the subject's incandescent music and the quiet forcefulness of his personality.

The movie celebrates Elton John.

This is intimate, consequential stuff, and with so much focus on his implosions you can see why John wanted to cede the limelight for part of the film to one of the few people above him in the rock pantheon: John Lennon.

Never Too Late really shines when it shakes off the formula of Elton's rise to fame and instead shows us the man himself.

With its glossy Disney aesthetic, it is not as intimate and revealing... Yet it does have a weird energy of its own that is ultimately quite moving, that comes from Elton’s honesty about his legacy of unhappiness.

For a film co-directed by its subject’s husband, David Furnish, Elton John: Never Too Late, while always entertaining, feels curiously impersonal and lacking in intimacy.

He reveals a few secrets, but when you’re as big a star as Elton John, you’re already an open book. That familiarity slackens the film’s pace, but at the same time you’re buoyed by the array of archival photos and footage of his younger years.

A triumph. Electrifying, poignant and illuminating.

This puff piece with substance is an affectionate tribute to a musical legend who has been a defining voice in pop culture for over five decades. It is a slam dunk for fans of the extravagant piano man.

The main issue with the doc is that Dexter Fletcher's biopic of Elton, Rocketman, was far more illuminating. But there is plenty to enjoy, from some wonderful concert performances to an extended sequence involving his friendship with John Lennon...