I haven’t seen anyone here talking about Control yet. Am I the only person here that’s about shit his pants in anticipation? I haven’t been interested in film lately due to lack of time, but I’ll be watching this on opening night. I don’t listen to Joy Division with any sort of regularity, but they’re easily the most affecting band for me.
Man, I didn’t even know this was getting made, how could I not know?
I initially read about it a few years ago. At that point, it was very tentative. Then I completely lost track of it until a few weeks ago and GODDAMN IT HAD BETTER OPEN HERE ON OCTOBER 10TH.
ahem.
Guys, I’m here to tell you that I’ve seen it already and its quite a solid movie. Really captures the live performances well and the acting is superb all around. The most refreshing thing is that it doesn’t really feel like a biopic in the Hollywood sense (since thats been done to death).
Also, the black and white cinematography is great.
I saw this last night and really liked it. Gorgeous B&W shots, great acting, some hilarious scenes, nice use of key Joy Division songs and performances… but none of it feels familiar or formulaic. It also strikes a nice balance between traditional storytelling and a more lyrical, arthouse style. It’s really quite devastating.
Sam Riley, the guy who plays Ian Curtis, is doing a Q&A at Film Forum in NYC tomorrow night in case anyone is interested.
argh… wish I was in the city.
Blech. It doesn’t appear to be playing anywhere in or around SF. I really hope I can see this in theater…
EDIT: Ah, found it! It’s playing starting October 26th at the Lumiere. Woot!
I put it on my Netflix queue already. (A two-month-old baby means no going out at night for us, no way, no how, not ever.)
Control is (finally!) out on DVD. I watched it again last night with my wife and it was equally compelling the second time through. Just beautifully done.
Control (Rated R, 121 minutes)
Just when you thought rock star bio-pics had officially jumped the shark, along comes Anton Corbijn’s gripping debut feature to prove there’s still plenty of life (and death) left in the genre. Control tells the story of Ian Curtis, the tortured, enigmatic lead singer of the legendary late-70’s rock band Joy Division. Covering his adolescence in Macclesfield, England to his rapid rise to fame and tragic death at only 26, the movie succeeds as an unusually persuasive and intimate portrait of a life, and with good reason. Curtis’s wife Deborah was a producer on the film and wrote the memoir on which it is based and director Corbijn worked with Joy Division during his early days as a rock photographer. As a result, the whole production has an uncanny air of realism and authenticity that you just don’t get from Ray or Walk the Line. Shot in stunning black and white, the gloom of rural England has rarely looked this evocative and the soundtrack of Joy Division songs is superb. But the heart of the film is the magnetic lead performance by newcomer Sam Riley who just nails Ian Curtis, the performer and the man. An artful bio-pic that avoids all formula and cliche, Control is funny and touching and just a stunningly good movie.
It looks like a fairly typical rise and fall of a rock star movie, but the review makes me think it manages to rise above that. I must admit, I don’t know anything about Joy Division, but I really liked the music in the trailer. Perhaps I’ll check out the flick and the music.