This film gets six out of ten only because some of the performances are almost worth the price of admission. Leonard Cohen deserves better. The director, a great fan of Leonard Cohen and a good friend of Mel Gibson, found herself before some great material, but had no clue what to do with it.
The Came So Far For Beauty concert has some terrific performances (Rufus Wainwright, Antony), and some awful ones (the two backup singers, who are inexplicably invited into the foreground and butcher "Anthem"). Cohen's turn with U2 is a lovely way to end the film. Seeing Bono sing back-up, and the look on Larry Mullins Jr.'s face are worth sticking around for.
But the problems start almost right away, and almost overwhelm the film. The performances -- calibrated for a concert stage in a large hall -- are filmed in artless close-up. It works for the charming Rufus Wainwright, but most certainly doesn't for his sister Martha and some of the others. Sometimes songs are inexplicably interrupted by some kind of often banal comment by Cohen himself, such as "The Wainwrights are doing a terrific job of reinventing my songs" (or something like that).
Worse, the film uses cheap editing tricks that have felt overused since the 80s: grainy super-8 footage of nothing at all, unmotivated digital effects, inexplicable additions of echo to some interview clips, superimposed red dots on the performance scenes, etc. This is film-school stuff.
But worst of all is the interview with Cohen himself. One gets the impression that he gave the director little more than a set of pat answers to frequently asked questions. Rarely does her questioning force Cohen to think, or to give her something he hasn't given before. (One exception is his recounting of his reaction toward losing his father -- a striking story that was unexpected and telling.) And not only is the interview itself disappointing, from a technical point of view it is strictly amateur hour. The director shot the interview herself, with a cheap camcorder. So cheap is the lens on this camcorder that the edges of the frame -- and Cohen's ear or other parts of his head (depending on the framing) -- are always out of focus. Surely, having been presented with such an opportunity, the director should have taken more care.
Bottom line: the skill, intelligence and attention to detail do not live up to the can't-lose subject matter. This is a documentary with a decent budget and some serious players behind it. Given that, it doesn't come close to living up to its potential.
The Came So Far For Beauty concert has some terrific performances (Rufus Wainwright, Antony), and some awful ones (the two backup singers, who are inexplicably invited into the foreground and butcher "Anthem"). Cohen's turn with U2 is a lovely way to end the film. Seeing Bono sing back-up, and the look on Larry Mullins Jr.'s face are worth sticking around for.
But the problems start almost right away, and almost overwhelm the film. The performances -- calibrated for a concert stage in a large hall -- are filmed in artless close-up. It works for the charming Rufus Wainwright, but most certainly doesn't for his sister Martha and some of the others. Sometimes songs are inexplicably interrupted by some kind of often banal comment by Cohen himself, such as "The Wainwrights are doing a terrific job of reinventing my songs" (or something like that).
Worse, the film uses cheap editing tricks that have felt overused since the 80s: grainy super-8 footage of nothing at all, unmotivated digital effects, inexplicable additions of echo to some interview clips, superimposed red dots on the performance scenes, etc. This is film-school stuff.
But worst of all is the interview with Cohen himself. One gets the impression that he gave the director little more than a set of pat answers to frequently asked questions. Rarely does her questioning force Cohen to think, or to give her something he hasn't given before. (One exception is his recounting of his reaction toward losing his father -- a striking story that was unexpected and telling.) And not only is the interview itself disappointing, from a technical point of view it is strictly amateur hour. The director shot the interview herself, with a cheap camcorder. So cheap is the lens on this camcorder that the edges of the frame -- and Cohen's ear or other parts of his head (depending on the framing) -- are always out of focus. Surely, having been presented with such an opportunity, the director should have taken more care.
Bottom line: the skill, intelligence and attention to detail do not live up to the can't-lose subject matter. This is a documentary with a decent budget and some serious players behind it. Given that, it doesn't come close to living up to its potential.