Joining in on the chorus

HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG

Directors: Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine Rating: (E) ★★★+

Ostensibly a documentary about modern troubadour Leonard Cohen’s most famous composition, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A

Journey, A Song (Rialto) is more accurately just another bogstandard musical biopic, which traces Cohen’s career from riches to rags and back again, with the usual mix of archival interviews, concert footage and contemporary talking heads, using the song as a metaphysical springboard to gain some deeper insight that might not otherwise be attainable.

Usually I’m a sucker for any music documentary, especially when it’s an artist I greatly admire, and this is mostly no exception. It’s highly enjoyable and insightful stuff, even if at times something feels a little off, although often it’s due to pacing issues — the film is far too languorous to ever really soar — as well as a central thesis — Hallelujah is the defining work of Cohen’s career and everything beforehand was leading up to it — that I inherently disagree with.

As if to prove the point, we’re treated near the end to an unintentionally hilarious montage of American reality show contestants absolutely butchering it, as well as a sickeningly atrocious rendition from rock doc stalwart Bono in which he thanks Jeff Buckley at the end, but you can’t judge a song by its (awful) covers, and there are at least several very good ones from Buckley (the definitive version), John Cale and Rufus Wainwright among others.

It is, of course, a great song — funny, longing, spiritual, seeking, sad, five minutes or less — but by the end I was Hallelujahed out.