First We Take Manhattan

First off, I should preface this post by saying that I'm a fan of the music and lyrics of Leonard Cohen. Especially his lyrics. Particularly and emphatically his lyrics. The vast majority of song lyrics aspire to doggerel. Occasionally they rise to honest, or thoughtful, or even inspiring. Only rarely, and by rarely I mean almost never, can a songwriter be truly called a poet. Leonard Cohen manages that in spades, but again that is a most subjective ideal to which I happen to subscribe.
Anyway, on to the point. Yes, it's strange but true that I actually have a point in this post. I just watched a movie called "I'm Your Man," a kind of combination documentary and tribute concert movie of Leonard Cohen's music, and my point is that it's very much worth watching. I'm not sure if you need to be familiar with the music to enjoy it--many of the performances are very different from Cohen's own versions of his songs. I myself was familiar with much, though not all, of the songs in the movie. Also, other than Nick Cave and U2, I was not familiar with the artists performing in the movie. Nevertheless, most of the performances were very good or better, and the final song in the film--Cohen himself performing "Tower of Song" backed by U2--was worth the time all by itself.
I strongly recommend that anyone unfamiliar with Leonard Cohen's music check it out, both his albums and this film. His "I'm Your Man" album is a good place to start. He's a fascinating person--a Jew, a Zen monk, a father, a "Lady's Man." It's great stuff.