FILTER SCREEN
The long goodbye
Years-in-the-making documentary becomes inadvertent farewell.
By James McNair.
Ozzy: No Escape From Now ★★★★
Dir. Tania Alexander
Ozzy Osbourne: the saddest of all keys.
PARAMOUNT +. ST
“I USED to take pills for fun – now I take them to stay alive!” quips Ozzy here. As Tania Alexander’s candid and tender film portrays the singer’s gruelling 2019-2025 health battle, black humour and music often galvanise him. Through falls, botched surgery, sepsis and the onset of Parkinson’s, No Escape From Now is always inching towards Ozzy’s return to the stage and England; specifically, his seismic, charity-benefitting Back To The Beginning adieu with Black Sabbath and guests at Villa Park, Birmingham. What’s unforeseen of course – and what cranks the poignancy as we view – is Ozzy’s sad passing last July 22, 17 days after the event.