2009 - December 5: Control

I think this was actually Mekka's pick, but since the film arrived in my mail today, I'll be watching it tonight and thought I'd start a thread to post my comments.

The film is Control 2007
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421082/

It's about Ian Curtis, lead singer of the group Joy Division, whose life ended in suicide. I'm looking forward to seeing it and will post my thoughts tomorrow.

havent had time to watch it yet, hopefully will do this week, i think Asherett has got his hands on it so going to watch it with him.

I'll have to skip this one, the place where i rent my DVD's went out of business a couple of days ago, they sold all of their DVD's, but i could not find control. .

Was finally able to watch this tonight (been in a show that's taken every night and weekends for the last 2 weeks). Like I said, it's about Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. I wasn't into Joy Division when they first came out, although since watching the movie, it impressed me and I'm downloading some of the music right now. They never got much airplay over here in the States.

**SPOILERS**
The movie is shot in Black & White, which works well for this film...the monotone of the cinematography matches the monotonous pace of the story. This wasn't like a "Sid & Nancy", with violent outbursts throughout that lead to a violent climax. This is very low-key throughout. Sam Riley does a good job as Ian, who seems to be someone who never takes control of his own life...he just seems to be along for the ride. He is afflicted with epilepsy, but in a so-so kind of way, never really pursues any real treatment for it. He finds himself loving two different women, and since he can't decide which one to stay with, commits suicide. And that's all there is to it.

And that, to me at least, is where the problem lies with this film: I just didn't care. If the main character doesn't care enough about his own life to even attempt to take any sort of control of it, why should I? I got the impression that when encountering a problem, Ian Curtis just ran away from having to deal with it. And when faced with a decision that he absolutely had to deal with, he chose the ultimate runaway: suicide.

That being said, Sam Riley does a very good job as Ian. In fact, the music in the movie is performed by him and the other actors, and they sound much like the original Joy Division. By looking at some of the performance footage of the actual Joy Division that was included on the DVD, you can see just how much Riley's performance antics resemble the real Ian Curtis. It's really quite eerie.

So, it's well acted, and beautifully shot, but without anything to draw me in emotionally, I'm left saying "So?"