Saturday, August 09, 2008

World's Shortest Movie Review: "Control"





Summary: The very short life story of Ian Curtis, epileptic vocalist of Joy Division. His struggles with sudden fame, seizures, an early marriage, and a mistress ended with his suicide at age 23, in 1980.
Upsides: Marvelously well-cast, artfully filmed in B&W. And of course the soundtrack is great. Good use of the music; "Love Will Tear Us Apart" plays as Debbie Curtis (Samantha Morton) literally tears apart her flat searching for evidence of her husband's affair.
Downsides: Rather shallow portrait of Curtis; we see his morose and guilt-ridden side, but little else. Where's the infamous temper? The punk 'tude?
Actor Sam Riley apparently did some of the vocals, because the concert scenes sound nothing like Ian Curtis (they do look him, though, complete with weird dancing).
Also, I can't get "Transmission" out my head.

6 comments:

John said...

I just purchased this from Amazon, right after seeing it here. Thanks!

I must dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio.

The Zombieslayer said...

heh. just saw it. thought ian curtis was unlikeable. hated his character.

liked the movie itself though.

tshsmom said...

I'll pass! Big surprise, huh?

Laura said...

Funny I should find out what movies John is buying by reading your blog...

I heard about this last year and have been meaning to rent it for a while.

S.M. Elliott said...

Dammit. I just got Transmission out of my head, then I read the comments. Now it's back.

;P

La Cremiere said...

Alex is a huge fan, so we went to watch the film, but I must admit, it did not do it for me, I did not enjoy the film or the story. But then again I was too busy watching the guy in front of us who kept rocking away whenever music came up. It amused me.