Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

fierstein In short, this is footage of a tribute show with Leonard Cohen material dressed up as a documentary.It seems like the film only contained 15 minutes of Leonard Cohen himself, with the rest filled in with treacly words of praise from talentless Leonard-wannabes (except Bono and Edge) which interspersed the bulk of the film - hacks such as the Wainwrights butchering Leonards wonderfully crafted songs.I can't tell you how bad it was to hear the catterwauling and tuneless wailings of a bunch of pretentious artsy folk. Nick Caves contempt for the country town he grew up in. Limpwristed Rufus and Martha breathe-singing into the mic like she has a cold. Bono trying to wax poetic for 5 stumbing minutes. Thanks, Bono - I was already aware there will never be another Leonard Cohen. There will probably never be another you or I either...The format was also predictable for true fans of Leonard. When they showed one tiny snippet of his interview he mentioned his time in New York. Instantly I knew that the next scene would be at the tribute concert again, where someone would butcher "Chelsea Hotel" (the song is set in NY). And the film didn't let me down (in its predictability anyway).A documentary that attempts to reveal the man behing the poetry would have been great. What we have here is just a groupie-fest - a lot of fawning and not a lot of Leonard.

brendastern This film introduced me to Leonard Cohen, who I vaguely knew as the writer of songs like "Tower of Song" and "Suzanne" but otherwise knew nothing about. In short, he's fascinating, and this film is as much about the art of composing as it is about the songs themselves. But there was not enough Leonard Cohen and too much time devoted to mediocre renditions of his music. Rufus Wainwright is entertaining, but the redeeming feature of the performances is the U2/Leonard collaboration which comes at the very end of the film. It's worth sitting through just for the expression on Larry Mullen Jr.'s face, the obvious worship for Leonard by The Edge and to hear Bono as a backup singer, with Adam Clayton looking bemused. I would only recommend this film to someone who knows music and can appreciate just how much work Leonard puts into his songs; otherwise, you'll be yawning an hour in.

dcwidman I had known Leonard Cohen and his music - had several albums (Jennifer Warnes 'Famous Blue Raincoat' a great one). I went to see this movie, though, thinking it should be good but not knowing what to expect. I had just seen Neil Young's Heart of Gold and was disappointed because it was essentially a concert film of new (and very similar) music. It failed to show the diversity in Neil Young's songs over the years. The Leonard Cohen movie was also a concert film but with artists I wasn't very familiar with. WOW, was I surprised. To me it surpassed The Band's "The Last Waltz" and now - for me - is the best music film ever. I was blown away by the performances, being mesmerized by Anthony's performance and deeply moved by Teddy Thompson's. I wanted a remote controller so I could push repeat and see these performances again. Martha and Rufus Wainwright's performances were equally stunning. Nick Cave looked and sounded like Leonard Cohen, while the others brought new and wonderful interpretations to these great Leonard Cohen songs. Nick Cave's Suzanne was fascinatng as he sang the lead 'behind' the backup singers instead of in front. It was filmed in black and white adding to the experience. In short, there wasn't a disappointing performance among any of them and I wouldn't want any of them left on the cutting room floor. If there was a disappointment at all it was that The Handsome Family's wonderful rendition of "A Thousand Kisses" was cut short. That's the music. But, this is also an "art film". Very masterfully edited were comments by Leonard Cohen and other musicians including Bono and Edge from U2. Photos of Cohen's life, his art, and his poems were appropriately and artfully placed to give a real sense of this amazing person's life and contribution. When Cohen reads his introduction to a book of poems being translated into Chinese we not only understand the man, we understand and appreciate the value of humility and the too often overemphasis on self-importance. The final number with Leonard Cohen singing and U2 playing and capped off a marvelous movie. This is a must see for any lover of the arts.

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.