• Release year: 2024
• Director: Dawn Porter.
• Producers: Trish D Chetty, Ged Doherty, Jamie Foxx, Leah Smith, and Datari Turner.
• Cinematography by: Bryan Gentry.
• Music by: Robert Glasper.

Shotgun Commentary: fans of Vandross will love this documentary, for everybody else it might get a bit too lengthy.

Review

Luther: Never Too Late is an absolute treat for Luther fans. The documentary follows the artists from his Listen My Brother times until the aftermath of his death. His passion for music, determination, drive, weight struggles, love life… Everything about him is narrated in this film through different interviews with coworkers, friends and fans.

The elephant in the room

While the film is really informative, there is one topic in which they completely missed the mark. Luther Vandross had an eating disorder. This made him gain and lose a significant amount of weight several times throughout his life. Despite how hard a disorder like that can be, he took the jokes with humour and poise.

The problem is, the press would not stop haunting him with critiques about his weight. If he was bigger, they were brutal — but if he lost weight, they spread rumours of AIDS. There was no winning. So, like many celebrities before and after him, his condition got worse due to the media’s cruel and irresponsible behaviour. Anything to sell paper, amirite?

This was a huge issue in his life that worsened with every traumatic event or disrespectful media reaction he endured. As such, the inordinate amount of time dedicated to this in the documentary feels wrong. Sure, it was a part of his life, but it wasn’t what he was known and loved for. He hated that people gave more attention to his weight than his music, and the film is too close to doing the exact same thing.

True talent

Thankfully, there is also a lot of emphasis on how hard he worked every day, during tours or at the studio, to make the best music and shows that he could. Not only was he a marvellous songwriter, producer and singer, but he was also involved in every aspect of his performances.

Luther even designed some of the outfits that his backup singers and himself would be wearing, and of course he would also make sure that all the voices in it were absolutely perfect. A coworker of his describes him as “a film director for your ears”, a very specific comparison that showcases how careful he was with every detail.

Human nonsense

In addition to his talent, he also fought to be heard by everyone, not just the black community. A challenge that cost him years and years of work, even as a multi-award winner. Like anything related to racism, it is ridiculous that people were fine airing black voices as long as they are just backup for a white singer, but not black singers. Do those voices change? Are listeners going to turn black if they listen to music sang by a black artist, just like voters would become women if they voted for Kamala Harris? Also, why is that a threat/fear at all?

The only thing that rivals the injustice of being limited economically and socially by his skin colour, is the fact that he had to remain alone his whole life just because of his sexual orientation. There is very little about this in the film, presumably because he kept it as secret as possible to avoid stigma, and his friends have chosen to respect that wish. Still, one can’t help but feel a little disappointed that so much time is given to irrelevant issues and so little to his aspect of his life. Especially considering that all he sang about was love.

All in all, Luther: Never Too Much is a documentary that will please all of Luther’s fans. It is a little unbalanced in terms of the time spent on each part of his life, which might make it more difficult to watch for people who have never heard of the artist. Still, it is wonderful that legends like Vandross are still being recognised and brought back into the spotlight with works like this one.

Thanks to Sony Pictures for big-screen access! Luther: Never Too Much will be out in UK cinemas the 30th of January.

Advice to take from this movie:

• Let people be whoever they want to be. Their weight or sexual orientation is none of your business.
• Fortune is good, fame… not so much.
• Being racist is as ridiculous now as it was back then.

What’s your take? Have you watched Luther: Never Too Much? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀