AHinMaine If I were trying to indoctrinate someone into Leonard Cohen, it wouldn't be through this bio piece.The one performance with Leonard and U2 during the documentary bordered on campy. I'm left with a feeling that the actual signal-to-noise ratio of this work was sorely lacking and very undercooked.There was quite a bit of discussion with Leonard about his life, mostly the events that people know about, answered a bit more in-depth. I found myself wishing for more discussion on the poetry of Leonard, more in depth info on his inspirations, where he learned his turns of phrase and metaphoric stylings.This documentary is short bits of discussion with Leonard, long bits of music performed by people other than Leonard, punctuated with celebrities gushing and fawning over him.

diriklolkus There is something very special about Leonard Cohen. A great majority of song lyrics are banal and predictable. With Mr. Cohen's lyrics, you are drawn in and become a part of the story. You can relate to what he is saying in his songs and you must respect his art in the presentation. As a poet, his songs reflect a lyricism and love of language which make them a pleasure to hear. This documentary is a good introduction to his life and his work. The performances are excellent and the interviews interesting. This does what all good documentaries do - make you want to learn more about the subject. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in sophisticated song-writers (i.e. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell). There aren't that many writers capable of working at the demanding level of Mr. Cohen and they are to be encouraged. Even if you have never heard of Mr. Cohen, take a chance and watch this movie...you will find it enlightening and enjoyable.

mjbarr I've been a fan since his first album. This film is a disservice to him. The performances, except for one by Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson are simply terrible. Those by Martha Wainwright, Nick Cave, Antony, and Jarvis Cocker were particularly annoying. Even the one by the McGarrigle sisters was ruined by the so called harmony of Martha Wainwright.I've never seen my wife get up and walk out of the room on a film before and I found myself fast forwarding through the performances to get to the few interview segments, which were also difficult to watch due to the poor camera work. There are many who have been able to interpret Mr. Cohen's songs, Jennifer Warnes, KD Lang, Billy Joel, Aaron Neville, and Willie Nelson come to mind, but those people selected for this performance were just awful.Hopefully there will be another attempt at capturing Leonard Cohen on film that will illustrate his insight, talent, and intelligence.So sad

Michael Fargo There's a moment in this film when Nick Cave describes the reason he first liked Leonard Cohen. Cohen's songs represented everything that Cave's home town wasn't. I suppose the same thing brought me to be a fan of Cohen's. It was never anything I defended. It was a very personal and quiet admiration. But it was also a deep one.Cohen's lyrics had always seemed like elaborate word puzzles to me. Bordering on the bizarre or obscure, they touched me in a place that needed affirmation, songs that acknowledged at the same time my faith and as well as skepticism of the political environment. But there was always that "puzzle" which was playful and mocking at the same time. No one—at least who I admired—did that with their music. When I heard that producer Hal Willner's tribute at the Sydney Opera House had been filmed and opened at Sundance, I was excited because I thought, "Finally someone else likes him too." I hadn't run across that many Leonard Cohen fans in my four decades of admiration. And I had read reviews that quibbled with the various interpretations of songs in the film and what some reviewers felt the filmed lacked. So I went prepared to be disappointed. I was anything but.The quality of the cinematography of Lian Lunson's tribute was the first thing that surprised me. The scenes of performances at the Sydney Opera House are beautiful with the musicians stepping out of inky blackness. The simplicity of the staging and the tight frame on singer's faces gives the film viewer a vantage that the audience in Sydney didn't have. There's a texture which Lunson added that wasn't artsy; I found it artful.And the performances are electrifying. Many have already commented on the Wainwright's and Anthony Hegarty's contributions. So I'll skip that (although Martha Wainwright blew me away). For me, Teddy Thompson's strong folk vocals were the most successful, and I'm pleased the soundtrack gives us an additional track of his performance. With the McGarrigle sister's unearthly harmonies with Martha Wainwright and then Julie Christensen/Perla Battala's performance that leads to the closing of the film, I was moved to tears by the beauty and power of their performance. Battala has a terrific solo album of Cohen's music. If you haven't heard it, seek it out. I suppose if Bono and The Edge agree to be in your film, you're obligated to include as much of what they say as you can. Personally, their praise was redundant and finally uninteresting. And while I'm a fan of their music and admire their philanthropy, I'd had quite enough of their gushing halfway through the movie.What we get of Cohen himself is plenty. For one, he's returning to the stage, and the film leads to that moment with the use of dissolves and overlays of the final performance tacked onto the end of movie. For reasons I don't understand, many people object to that. I thought it was terrific and Lunson teases us at the film's start with the moment of Cohen stepping up to the microphone in a New York cabaret where he gained his notoriety.The long interview with Cohen that is interspersed between the performances has also been a target of critics. But each segment leads quite directly to the next performance with Cohen commenting on the next song, giving us background of either the next song or the performer. Occasionally, he'll talk about himself, but he's not seeking celebrity, and those who kneel at that particular altar will be disappointed. This is a musical tribute and not a biographical film. Like many, I wanted more, but I wanted more of the same. I couldn't wait to see who the next performer was or what they would do with the music. Only Nick Cove sticks to a strict repeat of Cohen's arrangements. Everyone else brings something new and different and often haunting to songs that are already instilled with mystery. And I was grateful that Willner chose not to drag out old saws like Judy Collins, Jennifer Warnes or Buffy St. Marie to give us a reprise of those who popularized Leonard Cohen's songs. The performances in "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" are new and fresh, demonstrating each song's timelessness and after 40 years in some cases, relevance.