CONTROL

title: CONTROL

year: 2007

cast: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton

director: Anton Corbjin

rating: **

It would be silly for me to point out that a movie about the short, tortured career of "Joy Division" founder and lead singer Iam Curtis was too depressing. But what depressed me most is the film centered too much on the relationships with women (two in particular) and not enough on how the band formed and climbed to cult stardom. It felt like half a movie, and a long one at that. Not enough of their music, or what inspired it. Their sound was, for 1978, very ahead of its time and a glimpse into what sparked their machine-like monotonic sub-pop would have been a lot more entertaining then watching him arguing with his put-upon wife, a relationship which begins out of nowhere and then goes sour way too quickly. There's not much of a story-arc, although the acting is good (British actors, say no more), the black and white cinematography is top-notch, and when you do hear their music, it does sound excellent. But there needed to be more of the climb and less of the fall.