I am cranking out my documentary reviews for the Seattle International Film Festival today, and one to put on your radar for Sunday is the doc LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH about the legend known as Luther Vandross. This was also the opening night movie of HotDocs in Toronto a few weeks ago!
Program Notes: There’s a term in pro wrestling describing a certain type of wrestler: a “good hand.” Good hands are skilled, dependable performers whose role is to put others over. Though they may never reach the top of the mountain, you’re guaranteed a good show. This term came to mind several times when watching Dawn Porter’s Luther: Never Too Much, a career retrospective of one of R&B’s greatest unsung treasures, Luther Vandross. The start-stop highs and lows are all here with the “Endless Love” singer finding wins whenever he can in the face of bigotry, body-shaming, and an ever-shifting music landscape. Vandross’ professional drive and undeniable mind for vocal composition creates a hall-of-fame resume, landing gigs with Young Americans-era David Bowie, disco titan Dionne Warwick, and even Jim Henson. A murderer’s row of Motown greats, A-Listers, and the industry elite line up in this doc to testify to Vandross’ greatness and professionalism. It’s hard to argue. This womb-to-tomb music documentary highlights one of the best to ever grace the music industry. It’s time this “good hand” got his due. (Credit: Andrew Shanks)
Reaction: Although somewhat of a standard bio-pic documentary with all of the clips and talking head interviews you can handle, NEVER TOO MUCH took a little while to get going for me but it REALLY picks up as it goes along, especially when you really see how passionate Vandross was as an artist and how he was all over the place in his career from his voice to his weight loss/gain, his personal issues along with some questions about his sexuality later in life. Filmmaker Dawn Porter is not ashamed to look at any area of this and it’s very much all access, and it was also really good to see some rare footage on the man that I have never seen before. Overall I found NEVER TOO MUCH a solid and enjoyable experience, even though it’s somewhat basic in its presentation at times. Nevertheless if you love the man (who doesn’t?) then you really need to check it out.
