Control (2007) Reviews

This is an intelligently written, compassionately delivered brief of Ian Curtis' time with his band, Joy Division and the highs and lows of his relationship with Debbie, his wife, the birth of Natalie, his daughter and Annik, with whom he had a relationship. The concert scenes were incredible, made even more so by the fact that the actors played the music. As a Joy Division fan, I felt that Sam Riley's portrayal of Ian was undeniably genuine and transcendent. I've watched the movie 7 times and always come back to the sensitive moment when Ian is working with Colin at the Employment Bureau. Sam's credibility was inspirational enough to me that I recently auditioned for and got an important role in a play with my local theater house- for the first time. Of course, if you're not a fan of JD, the Northern England scene of the late '70's or of black and white cinematography... well, I still say you should see this movie!
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This is a decent bio-pic focusing on Ian Curtis of Joy Division. The directing is interesting, atmospheric, and moody, and the acting is solid all around. However, the story skips a lot over the years, leaving out details and depth into Ian Curtis' life and the pacing is very slow and dull at times.
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If you enjoy movies about rock stars who seem to become trapped in their success then you will find this to be one of the better ones ever made. More honest than a "Ray" or "Walk the Line" which get caught up in the excesses and try to make people seem righteous by the end. This one paints a vivid picture without burying you in Curtis's sins so that there really is nothing to be vindicated from at the end. He was what he was: a young lad who became overwhelmed by the life he lived. Sad? Certainly. Oppresive? not to me.
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Joy Division changed the landscape of the music coming out of the post-punk explosion of the late 70's. The tragety of unrecoginzed talent in an economic and political time not that different from our own make this film a must-see for anyone who grew up with the music of that time, or who cares about music in our own. The use of black and white made the film feel more like a documentary of the actual events it dramatized, and I commend Aton Corbijn for going against the ultra-high definition film machine grain. It works very well here. While I remembered every song used in the film, I do wish they had made better use of what was Joy Division's finest, and which appears on many top-ten-rock-songs-of-all-time lists. Aside from that thought, the film put me back to a place, and provided insight to the music I was listening to at the time.
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This was ok, I seen a lot of concerts and concert movies, born 1957, I prefer Ian Anderson of Jeffro Tull, this was a punk fest.I'am not a punk but a Rocker.Give me the WHO< Tull, Stones , Bruce, or Dylan. The movie stunk like the farts it laid throughout the show!This is typical of most music today, it reflects how shallow the world is getting!
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