Control (2007 116min.) [Film4 1.15am thursday &+1]
Biographical music drama starring Sam Riley and Samantha Morton. Growing up in Macclesfield during the 1970s, Ian Curtis dreams of a career in music, but settles for a job at the unemployment office and life with local girl Debbie. A chance meeting at a Sex Pistols gig changes Curtis's priorities, and he's soon writing songs and singing with the band Warsaw, which will become Joy Division.
A bio-pic of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, directed in atmospheric black and white by photographer Anton Corbijn.
Sam Riley is outstanding in the lead role - part impersonation, part dramatic interpretation of Curtis' slide into mental and physical ill health.
The musical numbers are superb, partly due to the fact that the actors learned to play the songs rather than mime to a playback.
Add to this Samantha Morton (possibly the best British actress of her generation) in the role of Deborah Curtis and you've got a film that works as nostalgia, as a film and as an absorbing drama.
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