Control

78

The Weinstein Company (121 minutes)
and Anton Corbijn
Sam Riley , Samantha Morton , Craig Parkinson , and Joe Anderson

Rating: R for language and brief sexuality

Summary: Ian Curtis has aspirations beyond the trappings of small-town life in 1970s England. Wanting to emulate his musical heroes, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, he joins a band, and his musical ambition begins to thrive. Soon, though, the everyday fears and emotions that fuel his music slowly begin to eat away at him. Married young, with a daughter, he is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band, Joy Division. The strain manifests itself in his health. With epilepsy adding to his guilt and depression, desperation takes hold. Surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Ian's tortured soul consumes him. (The Weinstein Company)

Glenn Kenny
Premiere:
(100) It's also that he's really, honest-to-God, got one of those movie faces that doesn't even come along once every generation. It's astonishing.

Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle:
(100) Even though we're aware of the tragic trajectory of the singer's life, for a while it almost seems as if reality got it wrong and Curtis might just squeak past the reaper's scythe with no more than a shave and a haircut.

Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun:
(91) Even if you have no interest in Joy Division, this picture is worth seeing for the unsentimental empathy and passion of the moviemaking.

A.O. Scott
The New York Times:
(90) You don’t have to know anything about Joy Division to grasp the mysterious sorrow at its heart.

Peter Travers
Rolling Stone:
(88) It's Corbijn, shooting with a poet's eye in a harshly stunning black-and-white, who cuts to the soul of Ian's life and music. You don't watch this movie, you live it.

Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer:
(88) Control doesn't claim to know the reasons Curtis killed himself. The act of suicide poses the question why, but rarely answers it, leaving the living to wonder, and to grieve. And there's certainly grief to be had in Control, but also joy. Really.

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