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Customer Reviews of Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

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Part documentary, part concert film, I'M YOUR MAN might have done better to stick to one or the other. Of course, tribute projects are always dicey in any event, and the concert organizers should be commended for bringing in (by and large) a new generation of Cohen interpreters. Nostalgia buffs like me might have secretly preferred Judy Collins, Jennifer Warnes and Buffy Sainte-Marie (whose inventiv, evocative "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" is my own personal benchmark for originality in Cohen interpretations--mainly because it was a musical adaptation of a literary passage and not simply one of Cohen songs). So give the filmmakers AND the concert organizers their props for their sincere attempt to bring the work of one of popular music's darkest poets to a generation that seems to like it pop even darker. <
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>And the roster of artists chosen for the tribute are all ones that I welcomed seeing in this context or ones whom have been reading good things about and was eager to hear. For us old-timers, we have a least one classic act, namely Kate and Anna McGarrigle, whom I have always loved. Unfortunately, it has come to light that Kate's children (with Loudon Wainwright) are the kind of arch, grating performers you just want to slap. (And I am not someone normally given to thoughts of violence.) Yes, they are talented--but also incredibly mannered and irritatingly full of themselves. And they are not alone. I can't recall the last time I've seen such an artsy-fartsy assemblage of musicians. (Although I will come to the defense of Nick Cave, who's taken a few knocks but whose take on "Suzanne" is, I think, pretty effective and as original as you could hope for.). <
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>The film comes alive whenever Cohen himself is onscreen. If the other interviewees are almost too lavish in their praise, Cohen is himself almost too modest. But he is always engaging, and in his own concert clip, in which he is accompanied by U2 (and which closes out the film), he is just riveting. More of that would have made this effort a truly great concert film/music doc. Several years ago, there was another Cohen tribute project, a CD called I'M YOUR FAN, which was pretty good. This time out, we would have benefitted from less of the "fans" and more of the MAN.

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A poet and a minstrel for the 20th Century
Leonard Cohen is a poet extrodanaire. He is unbelievable. And the performes in this movie are all excellent. I had never even heard of Rufun or Antony, but WOW! And those two women who sung "Anthem" blew me away. <
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>Leonard Cohen is not just another pretty face. His intelligence glows from him. His brilliance, his turn of a phrase, everything about his words and music move me. <
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>And to learn that he had became a Zen monk. I just can't say enough about this master poet and song writer. <
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>I would recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, if you are not a Leonard Cohen fan you will be. <
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>It had been years since i listened to him i had all but forgotten about him, and then them movie came out and i am blown away. I want so much to buy it but don't know if it will ever be available. <
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>God Bless Leonard Cohen, his music will endure forever.

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Wonderful
Full disclosure: it's mighty hard to get me to think anything bad about LC, let alone say it, so I'm hardly a neutral observer when it comes to this documentary. Still, if you have any interest in Cohen and his music, this is unquestionably a must see. The commentary by Bono, Rufus Wainwright and others gets a little too reverential at times for my taste. Leonard is no saint (if for no other reason than Chelsea Hotel #2, his kiss -- and more -- and tell tale about an interlude with Janis Joplin) and his sly humor as he talks about his life peeks through again and again, leavening the endless accolades from his admirers. There are many wonderful pictures of Cohen as a child and the film ends by repeating one of him on a tricycle. My favorite though, and one that I think ties together all the contradictions in his life and work, is one of a ten or twelve year old Leonard neatly dressed and combed but for an unmanageable cowlick, and standing with a bouquet of flowers in front of a statue of Mary. <
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>The singers do great justice to Leonard's work, including Rufus Wainwright in Hallelujuah and the aforementioned Chelsea Hotel (a somewhat different tune from Rufus's point of view). But best of all for me were his sister Martha and her version of The Traitor and backup singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen stepping up with a glorious Anthem. Only Nick Cave and, sadly, Anna and Kate McGarrigle are weak in the parade of spectacular voices singing spectacular songs. <
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>Toward the end of the film, Leonard muses about touring again, a prospect that, he says on camera, gets better the more he and others in the scene drink. And then he whets our appetite for such a probably-not-to-happen tour by performing Tower of Song, dressed impeccably as his haberdasher father would have liked, and backed by U2. How much would the tickets for Leonard touring with U2 as a backing band scalp for? Let the bidding start at a thousand or so.