The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005, and was released the same month in Canada by Lions Gate films along with the Sundance Channel. It was subsequently released in various other countries during 2006 and 2007. The film is distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment. A soundtrack CD is also available from Verve.
The DVD of the film contains extra performances.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was released by Verve Forecast in July 2006. It included performances mostly recorded at an earlier incarnation of the show in Brighton, May 2004.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 69% approval rating with an average rating of 6.59/10 based on 75 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "A moving, if somewhat uneven, look at the legendary singer-songwriter, I'm Your Man treats Cohen's body of work with the reverence it deserves."[2]Metacritic assigned a score of 68 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, and said, "I'm not generally a big fan of tribute concerts, but this is a glorious exception."[4] Stephen Holden of The New York Times called it, "...wonderful..."[5] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it 3/4 stars, called it, "...muddled but marvelous...,” and said, "It’s enough to send fans and converts alike to the Cohen library for more of the master himself."[6] David Jones of BBC Online gave the film 3/5 stars, and said, "[the film] brims with an infectious passion for the man's melodies and sardonic wit. Unfortunately, the performances are interspersed with interview footage that is much less captivating."[7] Jeremiah Kipp of Slant Magazine rated the film 2/5 stars and praised some of the performances, but had mixed feelings on the concert itself due to the styles of the cover songs, "lurching back and forth," between styles, and criticized the editing cuts switching between the concert footage and the documentary itself, calling it, "infuriating..."[8]
