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Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man reviews
68
6.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary  |  Musical

Written by:

Directed by: Lian Lunson

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 21, 2006
DVD: November 14, 2006

Running Time: 104 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for some sex-related material

Starring Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Martha Wainwright, Beth Orton, Julie Christensen, and The Handsome Family

Since bursting onto the scene in 1967, Leonard Cohen has inspired generations with his unique personality and haunting music, becoming one of the most original and enduring artists to emerge from the 1960s. Now, Lions Gate is proud to celebrate Cohen's legacy with director Lian Lunson's film, an intimate look at the songs, poetry and life of one of music's most celebrated and influential troubadours. (Lions Gate Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The only thing that tops Cave here is Cohen himself at the end, singing "Tower of Song" with U2.

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90

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

An affectionate and intimate celebration of the acclaimed troubadour in stirring music and words.

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89

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A moving tribute to this legendary artist's life and career.

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88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Australian rocker Nick Cave talks of how discovering Cohen during his small-town youth "just changed things." Bono calls the singer "our Shelley, our Byron."

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88

TV Guide Ken Fox

The accolades are typically gushing - Bono likens Cohen to Byron and Shelley.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

I'm not generally a big fan of tribute concerts, but this is a glorious exception.

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If there's a calmer, more self-collected star out there, then he or she has hidden the fact pretty well.

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80

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's a fleeting but memorable image in a film that defines Leonard Cohen largely through the admiration of fellow artists, who performed his songs at a tribute concert last year at the opera house in Sydney, Australia. Their admiration borders on the reverential, but reverence doesn't get in the way of their performances, which are varied, impassioned and thrilling.

80

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Combines pieces of an extended interview with this Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and author, now 71, with a tribute concert organized by Hal Willner at the Sydney Opera House in January 2005.

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80

Time Richard Corliss

Fetching little monument to the bard of rapturous bereavement.

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80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

If you can't think of a crisis in your life that's tied to a Leonard Cohen song, then Canadian director Lian Lunson's velvety, exuberantly hagiographic film of a 2005 Sydney tribute concert to the Prince of Pain may not be the movie for you.

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75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Director Lian Lunson keeps the tone reverent, making I'm Your Man the cinematic equivalent of a testimonial dinner. But there's a place for that kind of film, particularly for subjects who've earned it.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

I'm Your Man has at its spiritual center a troubadour with a distinctive, cagey mellowness about him.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

I'm Your Man movingly captures the artist's lifelong search for truth and beauty and his translation of it into song.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Joel Selvin

In some cases, the songs themselves shine most brightly.

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70

Film Threat Mark Bell

The performances in the film are soul-saving.

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70

Variety Robert Koehler

Proves that few can maneuver one of Cohen's dusky, lovelorn songs like Cohen himself.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The film comes to life when Cohen is on screen.

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63

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In this muddled but marvelous blend of documentary and concert film, director Lian Lunson takes you down to a place where it's possible to look closely at the life and art of cult troubadour Leonard Cohen.

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63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The documentary seeks only to make a joyful noise, and is sometimes laboured in the love it so keenly wants to express. Then again, as Leonard would be the first to concede, there are worse sins than flawed worship.

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60

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is Lunson's debut picture and she's smart enough to keep the whole affair very simple.

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60

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

Succeeds best when it intensifies its focus on the work and life of its main subject, seen in interviews, home movies and in a climactic performance with Bono and the Edge on "Tower of Song."

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50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Offering both too little material and too much, the movie leaves us in the bizarre position of understanding its subject no better by the end than we did at the beginning.

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50

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The net effect is one of frustration and will surely send Cohen compleatists back to their record collections for relief.

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50

New York Post V.A. Musetto

If you're going to make a documentary about Leonard Cohen, the singer-songwriter, you should have him perform some of his better-known melodies, like "Suzanne."

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50

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

This "Last Waltz"–like doc is almost funereal, full of reverent banalities spliced between overly folksy takes on melancholic Leonard Cohen bombshells.

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30

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Torturously dull.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
I am a Cohen fan, but this film embarrassing. I am not sure what the director was trying to do, but she failed miserably (what was the deal with the random waitress with the red sparkling dress??). Bono, the Edge and company get their greasy finger in this one too. Aside from a few good performances this film offers not but frustration to Cohen fans. Save your money and go listen to 'Songs of Love & Hate', or read 'Parasites of Heaven.'

Adam M. gave it a2:
I consider myself a Leonard Cohen fan, but this film was tedious at best. I mean no disrespect to artists like Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright and Beth Orton, but surely they could have done better for a tribute concert to one of the greatest songwriters of all-time. But the fact that this tribute concert is the centrepeice of the film is part of the problem; I think a more effective documentary would have focused on interviews with Cohen interspersed with his own definitive performances of his own songs.

Wolfiefish gave it a3:
I'm not a major fan, but I do own 2 Cohen cd's and think that he is a great song writer. I had my reservations about seeing this film, thinking it might be a dull affair. So I decided to check out the critics, and more importantly, the user reviews. I became interested after such positive comments and decided to go and see it. Metacritic! You let me down! I cannot believe there were no real bad reviews! This film stinks. It should have been called Leonard Cohens works get butchered in the style of a pub singer. (Nick Cave). Only Jarvis Cocker held his own on stage, and everyone else looked and sounded second rate. Maybe it's just my taste in music, but after I got back home I had to put some Cohen on again just to remind me what it was that I liked about the guy in the first place. Ok, the interviews with Cohen were interesting, at times inaudiable, but the comments by the "So called musicians" (Bono and the Edge) made me want to throw up. I fell asleep twice through this movie, and it was in an open air cinema. Don't see the film. Instead buy a bottle of wine, invite friends over and have a Cohen night in with your cd collection.

Ama C. gave it a10:
Big smile on face here too! - Tears too. The Leonard Cohen who comes across as a wry 71-year-old fully at peace with not taking himself seriously is MY man.... U2, Nick Cave, Rufus, Antony, Cocker and the others are passionate, humble and sincereand magnificent overall. The female voices and passion out of this world. whatever the sour grapes (& political??) critics say, this is an important documentary for those of us with a soul and a heart. It should rate much higher with the critics...but who believes them anyway!

Ennis D. gave it a9:
Basic, simple unpretentious. Though many of the interspersed interviews were either extraneous or a little trite, the simplicity and directness of the performancess were almost entirely all very moving. I didn't like Nick Cave that much. And, watching Rufus Wainright struggling to see the teleprompter on one song, was distracting. But all in all, Rufus and the rest of the gang all did very well on everything else. Cohen's experiences at the zen monastery were very interesting. More on this rather than the more mundane of the interviews would have been interesting. Cohen's songs are incredible and the interpretations are genuinely stirring.

Mary B. gave it a10:
Amazing movie ..Don't miss it.

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