Greetings from Tim Buckley

A wasted opportunity. The stories of Tim and Jeff Buckley are both tragic ones: massive talents cut short in their primes. Here was an opportunity to tell their stories in an interesting yet sensitive manner (and throw in some good music to boot!).

The good music is certainly there, but the interesting story is not. This movie just seems to meander aimlessly, and end up not really making a point. Many scenes just seem like padding, not really developing the characters or plot and just taking up time.

There is a degree of sensitivity, but maybe too much. It all just seems so pretentious and punch-pulling.

i had very low expectations for this and put off watching it for ages as it is not THE true Jeff biopic etc, BUT i have to say it is really well done. they really captured the legendary St Ann's church concert brilliantly, the lead actor was great too, very surprising to me. they weaved back n forth between that time and Tim flashbacks to the 70s, comparing and contrasting pretty much, but it worked really well. and even though they didn't have the permissions to play any Jeff songs, they still were able to sneak in Jeff and Gary Lucas planting the seeds for the song Grace together, that was really cool:) Anyway, this movie is more than good enough to tide us big fans over until the proper Jeff bio movie finally comes out...some day.

A gentle, touching film about young musician Jeff Buckley, 3 years before his break out (and only) album "Grace" traveling to NYC to perform in a tribute concert for his father Tim.

Having never known his father, but living in his shadow, and yet gifted with some of the same talent it's an unusual and quietly intimate look at the connections and hurts between fathers and sons, even those who never met.

Penn Badgley does a very nice job not only with the young Jeff's angst, but also his voice, which is not an easy one to capture. Imogen Poots is lovely as a young fan of Jeff's father with whom Tim has a sweet momentary romance. Not all the performances are at the same level, and the film doesn't delve very deep, but seeing a father and son (there are various flashbacks to Tim played by Ben Rosenfeld) at about the same age, so similar and so different is an effective and unique structural concept. The tragedy that both men completed their lives eerily alike, dying far too young, casts a haunting melancholy over it all.

Before watching 'Greetings from Tim Buckley' I'd never heard of either Tim Buckley (a folk singer in the 1960/70s) nor his son Jeff (a folk rock singer in the 1990s), so approached the film with no pre-conceptions, treating it almost as a work of fiction (with apologies to the Buckleys' fans). The plot (based, of course, on real-life events) surrounds rehearsals for a Tim tribute concert, at which his son Jeff is due to perform. It provides lots of human-interest drama, as Jeff reacts to other people's admiration of a father he barely knew. I cannot judge how accurate the portrayals of the two Buckleys are, but certainly, after ten minutes of Penn Badgley's nervy, twitchy performance as Jeff I was ready to give him a jolly good slapping. But the film did not seem to last as long as its 99 minute running time; always a good sign!

5/7/18. I wanted to see this because I thought it would be a concert film. BIG mistake. Sadly a waste of time.Just listen to the the recordings than watch this.