HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG

This is an interesting, revealing documentary about Leonard Cohen, the poet and songwriter behind “Hallelujah.” It brings together interviews with Cohen, friends, producers, engineers, his rabbi, a music journalist, and other musical artists, along with concert footage. The film also shows how the song grew from a difficult, long-term project into a widely known recording featured in major movies, including Shrek and Sing.

The documentary sometimes uplifts. It stresses Cohen’s Jewish roots, biblical allusions, spiritual lyrics, and his use of the word “Hallelujah” in relation to God. But it also connects that word with sexual love, discusses a five-year Zen Buddhist meditation sabbatical, and includes brief foul language and sexual references.

The practical answer is to wait for home, where discerning adults can control the experience and decide whether its musical and spiritual insights are worth the concerns.

Leonard Cohen’s life and work unfold through interviews recorded across the decades, concert performances, and reflections from people who knew or studied his music. The documentary follows his path from poet to singer-songwriter, the long development of “Hallelujah,” and the song’s eventual rise to prominence.

It also examines the spiritual, biblical, Jewish, secular, and personal ideas woven through Cohen’s lyrics and career.

Three stars means a solid, worthwhile documentary with meaningful strengths but notable limitations. The film is revealing and sometimes uplifting, especially in its use of Cohen interviews, concert footage, and commentary from friends, musical collaborators, producers, engineers, his rabbi, and other artists.

It gives substantial attention to the history of “Hallelujah” and to the ideas behind Cohen’s music. The documentary also includes his blessing at a 2009 concert in Israel and concert footage from his later years.

Its limitations are tied less to its subject than to the ambiguity surrounding Cohen’s spirituality and the film’s discussion of Zen Buddhist meditation, sexual lyrics, and foul language.

The documentary presents a light moral, biblical worldview from a general Jewish perspective. It highlights Cohen’s Jewish roots, references to God, biblical allusions, the statement that “The world was created by words,” and an Old Testament blessing he gives at a concert. It also ends its discussion of “Hallelujah” with Cohen’s words, “I come before the Lord of Song with nothing on my lips but ‘Hallelujah.’”

The film does not present Cohen’s spirituality as fully clear or consistently biblical. It acknowledges secular and non-religious aspects of his music and lyrics, including the use of “Hallelujah” for both love of God and sexual love. It also discusses Cohen’s five-year sabbatical at a Zen Buddhist monastery, though neither Cohen nor the documentary explains the meditation’s theology. Cohen says it brought psychological clarity and helped relieve his depression.

One interviewed musical artist says she is a lesbian and describes difficulty reconciling her Christian faith with her homosexual “identity.” That perspective is part of the documentary’s broader picture of spiritual and personal questions, but it does not make the film’s worldview fully Christian.

The film’s longing for clarity and peace points beyond artistic expression and meditation. Scripture records the blessing Cohen gives in part: “the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24–26).

This documentary offers worthwhile music history, revealing interviews, and moments of spiritual beauty. Its language, sexual lyrics, and ambiguous treatment of Zen meditation make it better suited to discerning adults watching at home. Our answer is WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For a different family movie night, see.