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Review: Soderbergh's "John Lennon: The Last Interview" Shows a Happy, Messianic Lennon

Steven Soderbergh's "John Lennon: The Last Interview" reveals a Lennon at his happiest, yet also at his most messianic due to his elevated state of life, which proves to be quite impactful.

Variety Music·May 15, 2026·via Variety Music

Review: Soderbergh's "John Lennon: The Last Interview" Shows a Happy, Messianic Lennon

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May 15, 2026 12:23pm PT

‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’ Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Documentary Captures John Lennon at His Happiest…and Most Messianic

The interview took place on the day of his murder. That's haunting, but the Lennon we hear has a disarmingly upbeat message.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

@OwenGleiberman

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There are two key moments in Steven Soderbergh ’s “ John Lennon: The Last Interview ” that really capture John Lennon — at his most captivating and humane, and also at his most messianically annoying. (As a Beatles believer since I was a little kid, I’ve never written the word annoying in a sentence with a Beatle before. But there’s a first time for everything.)

The first moment comes early on, when Lennon is talking about the song “(Just Like) Starting Over.” “The Last Interview,” as its title states, presents the very last media conversation that John Lennon ever had — and, chillingly, the interview took place on the day he was murdered, Dec. 8, 1980. A few hours before that earth-shaking tragedy, John and Yoko sat down inside their apartment in the Dakota to talk to a small crew from the radio station KFRC in San Francisco. It was the one radio interview Lennon had agreed to give in conjunction with “Double Fantasy,” the comeback album that had been released three weeks beforehand. (Just before the interview started, John and Yoko were upstairs in their apartment doing what became the iconic Annie Leibovitz photo session for Rolling Stone.)