“CONTROL has an unmistakable pulse: a wiry, electric tension between the extraordinary spectacle of Curtis at maximum surge….
and the dented ordinariness of which his undear life, like ours, was mostly composed. CONTROL has a beautiful poise of its own.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“Where it might have been literal-minded and sentimental, it is instead enigmatic and moving, much in the manner of Joy Division’s best songs. Manages to be both stylized and straightforward, avoiding over-statement even as it generates considerable intensity.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“The re-created performance scenes will make you believe the post-punk quartet
is the most important band of the era, and Sam Riley’s performance is a career-maker.”
– Time Out NY

“Grounded by Sam Riley’s powerhouse waif performance.” – New York Magazine

“(A) haunting, spare chronicle of Curtis’s short life.” – Melissa Anderson, Time Out NY

“Rarely, if ever, has a feature film so perfectly captured a band’s sound and look. Nails the essence of Joy Division’s music!” – Jim Farber, Daily News

Handsome and lyrical. A realistic balance between farce and tragedy.
Crucially, I feels authentic in its concert footage, a detail very few music films get right.”
– The Times (London)

“Superb.” – The Guardian (London)

“The coolest British film of 2007. Extraordinary. Packed with Brit-wit.” – The Independent (UK)

“Often spellbinding. Samantha Morton giving another brilliant performance.” – Kyle Smith, New York Post

“Riley and Morton are sensational. Morton’s as good an actress as any working today and in CONTROL,
she overcomes an age gap to give one of the year’s most heartbreaking and honest performances. Newcomer Riley is a revelation himself.”
– Jack Mathews, Daily News

“Haunting. Sam Riley…is mesmerizing in the concert scenes. He also sounds exactly like Curtis. Lustrous wide-screen black and white.
CONTROL goes past the clichés of punk rock-god gloom to offer a snapshot of alienation that’s shockingly humane.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“There probably won’t be a better-looking film this year than CONTROL.
A creamy luminosity turns even the scrubbiest setting into something beautiful. The musical sequences are properly thrilling.”
– Steve Dollar, The New York Sun

“Samantha Morton...a fabulous and underrated actress. Corbijn’s on-the-nose direction. A terrifying portrait.”
– Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger

“A visually arresting portrait of a tormented soul.” – Russell Edwards, Variety

Impressive. Curtis (beautifully played by Sam Riley) was a fey neo-gothic poet so tortured by his epilepsy and adultery that he charted in his lyrics and stage performances his dreadful route to suicide. In CONTROL, the teenage Curtis spouts Wordsworth, awes and marries Deborah (Samantha Morton at her best), and Joy Division blast their way into Manchester folklore.”
– Graham Fuller, Interview

“Lovely and deeply touching. The most beautiful-looking picture I’ve seen all year. Lighted so artfully that it has a velvety glow.”
– Stephanie Zacherek, Salon

“Corbin radically humanizes Curtis, revealing him as a naïve romantic devastated by his own success. Curtis’s grim lyricism is born from the equally grim milieu of working-class Macclesfield, and Corbin drives his point home adroitly. Complementing the film’s poignant visual texture are the performances, which are uniformly rich. CONTROL heralds the debut of a promising new director in Anton Corbijn.”
– Edmund Eugene Mullins, BlackBook

LATE-’70s BRITISH POST-PUNK BAND JOY DIVISION was one of the most influential groups of their time, inspiring U2, Kurt Cobain, The Cure, Interpol, “goth rock” and countless others. Yet their career ended after only one album, when lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide at age 23. Sam Riley gives an unforgettable performance as the troubled, enigmatic leader of the Manchester band — whose talent for singing intense, darkly infectious pop songs was subverted by mood swings, bouts of epilepsy and a crumbling marriage. Samantha Morton (IN AMERICA, SWEET AND LOWDOWN) plays his wife, upon whose memoir the film is based. The feature debut of acclaimed rock photographer/music video director Anton Corbijn.

UK • 2007 • 121 Minutes • The Weinstein Company

LINKS:

• Official website for the film
• Joy Division Central

Listen to our latest Podcast:
CONTROL:

Q & A with actor SAM RILEY
(Recorded October 24, 2007)