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Control

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Control (2007)

88%
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87%
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88 %
Reviews Counted: 100 Fresh: 88  Rotten:12 Average Rating: 7.4/10
 
Consensus: Control is a work of art, thanks to its evocative black and white cinematography and sensational performances from Sam Riley and Samantha Morton. Even those not familiar with Joy Division can still appreciate the beauty of the film.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Theatrical Release: Oct 10, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $801,112

Synopsis: Based on the memoir TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE by Deborah Curtis, Anton Corbijn's CONTROL is as near perfect a filmic telling of the story of Joy Division and Ian Curtis as any fan could hope for. It's also a beautifully rendered piece of cinema about the crippling effects of love and regret, and... Based on the memoir TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE by Deborah Curtis, Anton Corbijn's CONTROL is as near perfect a filmic telling of the story of Joy Division and Ian Curtis as any fan could hope for. It's also a beautifully rendered piece of cinema about the crippling effects of love and regret, and the salvation we seek in art. Born out of England's post-Sex Pistols punk explosion, Joy Division played a dark, minimalist version of the nascent sound, and became cult heroes thanks in part to their brilliant yet disturbed frontman Ian Curtis (played by an eerily perfect Sam Riley). Corbijn does a wonderful job recreating the Manchester band's music and live show, cutting straight to the essence of Joy Division's unique appeal. Credit must also be given to the three actors who portray the rest of Joy Division. Playing all the instruments themselves, they perfectly capture the band's powerfully stoic presence, one that translates both live and on record into the sonic equivalent of an existential crisis. CONTROL, however, is ultimately about Curtis's tumultuous marriage with his wife, Deborah (Samantha Morton), and the way that Joy Division became an aesthetic manifestation of his pain--one that was both physical (Curtis was an epileptic) and emotional. Corbijn evokes Curtis's hurt and isolation with both honesty and subtlety: a photographer originally, he frames each shot to look like a stark black-and-white photo from an album the audience was never meant to see, making Curtis's pain palpable and his eventual suicide that much more tragic. The overtones to the later suicide of Kurt Cobain are hard to avoid, but where Cobain's suicide has always been discussed in terms of the pressure he felt as a rock star, Curtis's, as rendered by Corbijn, is a pain anyone could potentially be forced to suffer through. [More]

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

Starring: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson, Toby Kebbell

Director: Anton Corbijn
Screenwriter: Matt Greenhalgh
Producer: Orian Williams, Peter Heslop, Deborah Curtis
Composer: New Order

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 3, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital Stereo - English
  • Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. Filmmaker Commentary
  • Making Of
  • Music Videos

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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Ratings Image
4/5

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review
Ratings Image
N/A

Control does justice to Curtis' legacy but fails to make any further grasps for significance.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/31/08
Sean Gandert
Paste Magazine
Ratings Image
4/5

Um filme repleto de planos magnificamente compostos e que se tornam ainda mais impactantes graças à impecável fotografia em preto-e-branco de Martin Ruhe.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/26/08
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image
4/5

(Curtis) was such an unfortunate man - just a boy really - whose existence was snuffed out by a lifestyle he could not possibly avoid.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/25/08
Chris Laverty
Mansized
Ratings Image
N/A

Positioning art as a necessary surrender to a creative force which removes the self dangerously from existence and society, Control intimately connects in tragic yet euphoric ways to the mixed blessing of the radically unleashed musical imagination.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/30/08
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze
Ratings Image
C+

Some of Riley's musical performances are electrifying. This would not be a bad movie at all, except for the infuriatingly romantic portrayal of suicide.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/06/08
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
Ratings Image
3/5

More expressive than Gus Van Sant's "Last Days" about a tragic music figure, but incrementally so.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/19/08
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
Ratings Image
3/6

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
01/18/08
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York
Ratings Image
C+

Tells me more than I care to know about the ill-fated singer with a personality like talcum powder and songs fit to make the depressed even more depressed.

Full Review | comment 3 Comments
01/16/08
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
01/15/08
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons
Ratings Image
85/100

Riley gives a great performance, and director Corbijn's direction is deceptively perceptive. One of the year's best.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/08
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide
Ratings Image
3/4

The monochromatic palette suggests the kitchen-sink heyday of 1960s British cinema; fittingly, 'Control' is at its best when it concentrates on the quotidian.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/21/07
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Ratings Image
3/4

Control humanizes Curtis while acknowledging that he could be remote and even cruel in his selfishness and despair.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/14/07
Derek Donovan
Kansas City Star
Ratings Image
2.5/4

Joy Division fans have already embraced Control, a film biography of short-lived lead singer Ian Curtis. Those of us who didn't follow the 1970s English band or the post-punk scene around it may feel less invested.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/07/07
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer
Ratings Image
4.5/5

[An] absorbing and ultimately harrowing look at Ian Curtis' short, unhappy life.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/07/07
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
B

A wobbly construction of facts, but as musical bio-pics go, it has real cinematic personality and avoids most of the painful clichés that tend to shadow these productions...you can sense Deborah's script-approval fingerprints all over the material.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/07
Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image
N/A

Sam Riley is fascinating as Curtis, a hypersensitive young man hobbled by his incurable disease, and Samantha Morton is poignant as his put-upon wife.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/03/07
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
A-

Even if you have no interest in Joy Division, this picture is worth seeing for the unsentimental empathy and passion of the moviemaking.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/22/07
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun
Ratings Image
4.5/5

Control is easily one of the finest films ever made about the collision of music, madness, and the human heart.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/17/07
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle
Ratings Image
B

Where many biopic actors simply dress like the subject and re-enact his or her life, Riley truly conveys Ian's heart and soul.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/14/07
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com
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