Review of Control (2013) by James B — 14 Nov 2009

Fantastic film about Joy Division and, mostly, Joy Division's troubled lead singer Ian Curtis.

This is not a bio-pic about Joy Division, more so Ian Curtis and this insight into his life is both interesting and touching. It follows him from the age of 16, signs of trouble already showing, skips a few years and finally shows his life before his tragic suicide.

Shot in black and white by music video director (he did Atmosphere in 1988) and photography Anton Cobrjin, who had worked with Joy Divison a lot in his career, was the best chocie of director due to his understaning of the band and the leading man and it shows. He gets the emotion and the hardships perfect. Yet what he does with the most skill is portray Curtis's mind frame and mental issues, such as deep depression, which were obvious throughout most of Joy Division's song catalogue, often avoided because of the depressing nature but loved by genuine fans.

Joy Division songs, actually performed vocally by Sam Riley, are editied in every now and again to show their significance and what they actually mirrored, which gives fans and people experiancing them for the first time an interesting back story to them as well as something to apply the songs to in future.

The scene of his sucide is heart wrenching and extremly well shot which makes us feel maximum emotion at one of the most infamous deaths in music history.

This is not an easy bio-pic to view. It is slow and metaculously lingers on certain points but if you have patiance and genuine interest, you will savour this film and understand it for what it really is.