Anton Corbijn never learned that brevity is the soul of wit. Control is overlong and fairly soulless, without an ounce of levity. Ian Curtis, by all accounts, seems to have been a dour and humourless sort, which makes for a bleak biopic that trudges straight to his suicide, without making much of a case for him - or anyone else - as an interesting person, worthy of examination. There are no standout performances to speak of here, with the possible exception of the guy playing Tony Wilson (but then, if you can't base a good performance on Tony Wilson, you're not trying very hard), though it's astounding how well the Joy Division songs work as a soundtrack. Of course, if you're just in this for set-humming, pick up 24HourPartyPeople instead. You get the Joy Division history compressed into an hour, and filtered through the charisma of Tony himself. It's proof that you can do heavy topics without being heavy-handed.
Buy the Control soundtrack on CD
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