Major Cast: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson, James Anthony Pearson, Harry Treadaway, Craig Parkinson, Toby Kebbell, Andrew Sheridan, Robert Shelly, Richard Bremmer, Tanya Myers, Martha Myers Lowe, and Matthew McNulty
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours and 2 minutes
*******
Because people were either excited for or brutally against Bohemian Rhapsody, here is a movie that wasn’t controversial when it was released. When I saw Control at The Fairfax Theatre (closed in 2010), it was a movie that encompassed Ian Curtis’s whole life. It wasn’t shy of portraying him as a tortured person, which stemmed from depression due to his epilepsy, conflicted emotions about having a family versus a more independent lifestyle, and his inability to deal with fame. Curtis’s creative influences on Joy Division, a rock band from England, and his destructive tendencies with his family, are the basis of this movie. The band members included guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner (James Anthony Pearson), bassist Peter Hook (Joe Anderson), and drummer Stephen Morris (Harry Treadaway). They would later form New Order. This was Anton Corbijn’s debut directing a feature-length movie, as he is mostly known for his music videos and photography. He later would direct The American (2007), A Most Wanted Man (2014), and Life (2015) which I recommended a few years ago. Ian Curtis is played by Sam Riley, Debbie Curtis is played by Samantha Morton, and Annik Honore is played by Alexandra Maria Lara. Their manager, Rob Gretton, is played by Toby Kebbell. If you aren’t a music fanatic, it doesn’t matter because this movie offers a good story where the main character is pulled in too many directions and comes to a unpredictable end for most involved.
