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Best movie of this year hands down!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Film has been waiting for so long for me to watch it. Finally the time has come. And you can't call this time was wasted. Control tells the story of seven years from life of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's vocalist. Film was directed by the photographer of the band, Anton Corbijn and the script is based on a book of Deborah Curtis (Ian's wife) - Touching From The Distance.We need to start from this, that black and white vision was a really hit idea. Colours would only disturb in giving back the climate. Film starts from appearing the Ian's adolescent experiences. Thank to this observation, a spectator can get to know him and the environment he's living in very well. We meet his family and his mates (inter alia, future co-members of the band). Then, we melt more and more into the life of the main character, which makes us his friend, someone who knows him best. Bitter, stretched in time collapse of a talented musician is happening before our eyes.We're witnesses of a range of emotions which Curtis is living, just in the first minutes of the film. Historical events (the band arise) are made with us, we participate in Joy Division's concerts and intimate moments of the character when he's alone with his own thoughts. All Curtis' feelings and reactions affect us. We experience and survive with him. As spectators, we're sucked inside. We're not only the watchers but we upgrade to the rank of co-heroes of the action. The fact that music isn't only a background but also a story, help us with it. Songs are perfectly fitted in plot and every frame is deeply emotional.Watcher which doesn't get the context and is not familiar with the band's music, simply shouldn't watch it. He has to be soaked (at least a little) with the conception and post-punk seventies. Film is worth something more than being watched by ignoramus who just won't understand it.Every frame seems to emanate depressiveness and this specific climate which I'm associating with Joy Division's music. I have no idea how come film creator made it but I'm enormously grateful to him for this. I enjoyed the band's work long before watching the film but after this (or even during this) I fell in love with it even more. It was awesome to hum songs during the seance and to meet the owner of this wonderful voice better. I don't know about you but I don't need more to admit that Control became, indisputably, the next one of my favorite films.

Control, the story of Ian Curtis, singer of British alternative band Joy Division. The film is made in black and white, which adds a certain edge to the film. There isn't much drama or fast-paced scenes (until the very end, I guess), and that seems to be what everyone criticizes about the movie. Why do you think the director wanted it black and white? If it had been a sincerely boring film, why release it? Of course they made up some aspects of Ian's life, but the fact is that Ian was a dull, depressed human being. He couldn't handle love, or fame overall. He doesn't show signs of emotion in the film, and doesn't speak much at all. Truth is, black and white was exactly what he saw, while he was spiraling towards the end of his life. The acting is incredible. Absolutely spot on. Very very noteworthy.I enjoyed Control, but that's only because I love indie films and rock and roll movies. If you're looking into this movie expecting some delicious drama and edge-of-your-seat thrills, just don't watch it. It's about a man who gradually fell apart, who gradually lost control. And if you can't see that in the film, it's definitely not worth watching.

I'm not greatly into the whole Joy Division / New Order musical trip, finding the music too grim and never forgiving the Nazi-chic of their deliberately chosen band names. Plus I remember at the time reading in the music press of the day the legend "Ian Curtis died for you" and dismissing it as sheer hyperbole. After watching this movie, I still don't believe the latter but do have a better knowledge of the man behind the myth as well as a better appreciation of the band's music.Unsurprisingly shot in black and white by the celebrated monochromatic rock photographer Anton Corbijn (later associated with his iconic images of Depeche Mode and especially U2), the film is thus rendered bleak and grey, the proper background for the depressed Manchester and Macclesfield locations that were the backdrop to Curtis's life as well, of course as his turbulent life and the group's doomy, powerful music.The movie eschews the traditional celebration of the rising success of the group to the extent you're hardly aware of their popularity at all. All the way through, Curtis lives in run- down houses and freely moves in everyday locations with hardly admission of his growing celebrity and increasing musical significance. Instead, the film concentrates on his epileptic illness and growing surliness together with his relationships with the two women with whom he had lasting, if difficult relationships, his wife Deborah and his lover, Belgian Embassy attache Annik.I struggled somewhat with the relentlessly downbeat insight into Curtis's life and at times struggled to see how he could attract the attention of the two women who struggle for his attention. A largely absent and disinterested father and husband he cheats on his wife and yet returns to her, lacking the courage to do the honourable thing and move on to let her live her own life. In the end, his depression at his personal conflict, his debilitating illness, addled by his medication and drinking leads him to his final act of self-destruction and of course the debate as to whether this was a heroic or cowardly act.If lacking life and drama (and humour) in the story-telling, there's no questioning the power of the band's music and the recreation of Curtis's hood-eyed, "lost control" whiplash dancing style by Sam Riley is spot on. The acting in support was solid, with an empathetic performance by Samantha Moore as the long-suffering wife and in particular, though relegated to the sidelines, the actors paying the individual Joy Division band members, who as well as looking the part, also convincingly recreate their emotive music.Curtis's story is certainly one worth re-telling given his posthumous elevation to post-punk icon by the music press in the UK in particular. That said, the film didn't exactly move me and never seemed to really get under the skin of its subject, which given the prior knowledge of the inevitable conclusion, lends a slow-motion car-crash perspective to the story's progression.No film about the artist's life here was ever going to be a joyous and uplifting experience, but Corbijn largely treats his subject with sympathy if little real insight. In the end Curtis remains an elusive subject , which may just have been the point of the film in the first place.

"Control" is one of my favorite contemporary musical cinebiographies ever made, ranking next to "The Doors" (1991) both going for an certain accuracy in terms of presentation of events, their great poetic sense in presenting their main characters and without surrendering to sensationalism, exaggerations (although Oliver Stone's film flies away with some imagination but it's good anyway) . Cinematically speaking, the film offers a view on things that are close to the object investigated, through an careful cinematography that recreates style, the period, the way we perceived the life and work of Ian Curtis and Joy Division. It's art in its great state. Most important, the man moving the whole show is Anton Corbijn, video clip director close to the Joy Division, he knew them all, and he makes of this work his film debut. He couldn't pick anything better and more appropriate for an promising beginning.For the challenging role of Curtis, Corbijn has on his side the newcomer Sam Riley, who is one of most amazing talents to rise in the last years. This marks his first screen credit after a few TV movies but he stands firm on the ground by singing, acting and being Ian Curtis, the late vocalist of Joy Division. There's no one like him, so impressive, so young and already acting like a veteran. His performances carries the whole film, going through so many different stages, depressed, angry, shattered, afraid of going to the stage, romantic. We follow Riley/Curtis (gotta make this association) from the moment of start of the band, the first meetings, then writing lyrics from the things he personally felt and seen (example, how he came up with "She's Lost Control" after seeing a girl having an seizure on the floor on the hospital he worked), the recognition and attention the band got from Tony Wilson (Craig Parkinson), the first gigs, the success and eventually his fall, and the band's dissolution (turning into New Order and the rest you can follow on "24 Hour Party People", which is blasé compared to "Control"). There's also room for Curtis love relationship with Deborah Curtis (played by Samantha Morton), life in family, and his love affair with journalist Annik Honoré (Alexandra Maria Lara), that seems to be used as an indicative of how things got messed for the man. From the beginning we know that he's man with many problems, suffered with depression and seizures that often ruined his performance on stage. His lyrics evoke and paint things in a darker, sad way. Just take a look at their most famous song "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Real artists who make genuine art must reflect themselves, in one way or the other. Curtis was all that. I'm wonder where did Riley took it all to compose his melancholic portrayal of the man."Control" shows the dimension of Ian's problems but just like like it leaves the real reasons for suicide to the perpetrator. Presure, difficult in dealing with fame, the problems at home, his medical condition, the depression, addiction, who knows? All we know is that on May 18, 1980 he listened to Iggy Pop's album "The Idiot", watched one of his favorite films Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" and hang himself, leaving everything behind, becoming an rock n'roll icon, eternally remembered by his fans. He's just control and end it all. It's not our task to judge him. A note I make to the film's great accomplish is by not showing this final moment. We see the ritual (and I want to know how all of this become a fact, with the album and the movie), he enters in the kitchen and the rest is seen through a distant shot of Deborah entering in the house. It would be too painful to see that, we like Curtis too much to see an shocking moment like this. With no lost moments in it, "Control" is full of so many great scenes that is difficult to select just one to say that this movie is special. Walking down the streets with an jacket that says "HATE", the confusion during an performance where Ian couldn't go to the stage, replaced by an uncharismatic lead singer singing "Disorder" and booed by the crowd (the song's inclusion is not an accident); the conversations between Ian and Annik; "Atmosphere" for the conclusion was perfect and the band concerts, amazingly played by the actors Joe Anderson, Harry Treadaway and James Anthony Pearson playing respectively Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner. Outstanding musical numbers!I don't know how much of it was legend or fact or condensation of both, but the true thing I've seen here was epic and it looks and sounds completely real and believable to me. Curtis would be proud of this. 10/10 RIP Ian.