Luther: Never Too Much
Directed by Dawn Porter
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
In theaters November 1

by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer

The lives of great artists often tread a familiar path: humble beginnings, belief in a dream, silent struggles. It can lead many biopics to feel like we’ve seen them before. But in the documentary feature Luther: Never Too Much, director Dawn Porter draws on surprising aspects of the singer-songwriter’s drive toward stardom, keeping this life’s tale continually fresh. 

Luther Vandross grew up on Motown music, and as a young man, joined the band Listen My Brother as a vocalist. At times people would breeze in to listen to the group during rehearsal. One such man, developing a new television show for children, stopped by and as fate would have it, loved their sound. Jim Henson hired them to perform songs for the pilot episode of Sesame Street. Long before Luther Vandross earned the title “The Love Doctor,” he was encouraging kids to soulfully learn their ABCs.

Motown came out in full swing in the 1960s and, by the late 60s into the 70s, a subgenre began flourishing in Philadelphia. Characterized by rich harmonies and more involved orchestral arrangements—think “When Will I See You Again,” “Love Train” and “If You Don’t Know Me by Now.” With Philadelphia blossoming into a musical hub, Luther headed over to further his career. There, he landed a gig as a studio backup singer for David Bowie. During a moment of downtime, Luther infused his own personality into how his lyrics were sung. Unbeknownst to him Bowie overheard, loved it and decided to keep the changes for the iconic song “Young Americans. “

Luther later branched out into singing jingles for national commercials, including KFC and Juicy Fruit chewing gum. This line of work paid handsomely and his career was on a roll. However, it reached a point where even those employing him realized his time had come. Luther needed to finally step out from the background.

All these varying roles along the way help piece together the intriguing story of Vandross’ musical life. History was in the making and he was there drawing from it as well as contributing to it. Before he evolved into a star he’d already woven his voice into the musical history of America.

When success finally hit, so did the haters. Many celebrities have weaknesses which bestow upon them a cool factor. Booze, women, sex-drugs-rock-and-roll–but Luther’s issue was too banal to heighten his fame. Struggles with one’s weight lacks the panache of stardom and unfortunately attracted open mockery. Even though comics and commentators felt free to tear him down, he never lost sight of his singular vision to bring forth the best songs he could. Luther’s deep unending passion for the music is always apparent. There’s never that moment where he disregards his audience, half-heartedly performs or does a number high. He was all in for life. 

If a filmmaker tells themselves ‘this is their biography I’ll just tell it like it is,’ invariably there are boring spells. Here, Dawn Porter shows artistic strength throughout, touching on important moments and highlighting the most interesting ones. It also added to the overall enjoyment that instead of getting as much footage as possible of Luther telling his story, she leaned on interviews with employers, collaborators and childhood friends, and ultimately let the music do the talking.