Rating of
2.5/4
"Control" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/23/12
Joy Division have always been the kind of band I appreciate rather than love. They are intelligent, important, and interesting but have never got my adrenalin flowing like many of my favourites do. The same is true of this film. It's very well made, well shot and well written and the performance by Sam Riley as Ian Curtis is totally believable. But somehow it left me cold. I felt like I was watching a museum exhibit; a portrait of a young man in a glass case that I had no emotional attachment to. Was he a troubled genius plagued by mental illness, or was his suicide caused by the side effects of a cocktail of ineffectual and misprescribed drugs? Or was he just a typically selfish and pretentious pop star just guilty about not being able to say no to a hot and willing young groupie? I don't bloody know, and neither it seems, does this film. A very honest and believable biopic that unfortunately holds no answers for anyone looking for a window into the inner workings of Curtis' mind.
