Control.

"The worst and most common failing in movies of this kind — biographies of artists, musicians in particular — is that they turn creativity into a symptom and fate into pathology," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "One of the great virtues of Control is that it does not fall into this trap. 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."

Updated through 10/12.

"On a technical level, the film is a fantastic accomplishment - possibly one of the prettiest movies released this year - but the script hardly justifies the extreme panache," writes Eric Kohn at the Reeler. "If [Anton] Corbijn had something to say beyond the obvious - that Curtis was one unhappy rocker - the ideas are lost in a sea of pretty pictures."

"It's difficult to imagine a film adding much to the existent wealth of JD lore, but Control at least catches glimpses of its subject, and allows the music (competently rerecorded live, by the actors) screen time enough to breathe, and seem as though it's being played out for the first time," writes Nick Pinkerton at indieWIRE.

"Praise for the film's supposed kitchen-sink realism is perplexing given that Corbijn's arrangement of people across his frame is infinitely more sensitive than his purview of Manchester at the time," writes Ed Gonzalez at Slant. "Far from the fierce social consciousness of Mike Leigh, Control's images, if not its equally arresting performances, suggest a kitchen sink scrubbed clean."

"Control is like a wake where the guests forgot to bring the booze and, for the most part, have nothing very nice or even particularly interesting to say about the deceased," writes LD Beghtol in the Voice. "Curtis was young, fucked-up, given to petty cruelties, and - by his own estimation - doomed. After seeing this banal flick, who cares?"

"Control may intrigue through a certain blankness and circumscription (almost amusing alongside the season's other story of a musician, the voracious, protean I'm Not There)," writes Nicolas Rapold in the L Magazine. "But besides the collapse of the film's confidence, its still-novel world comes to feel too pristine, weirdly aloof from a hardscrabble period."

"The movie calls a spade a spade: Curtis was a pill, a 24-hour perpetual pain in the ass," writes Robert Cashill. Still, "Distance and discretion sum up Control."

Anthony Lane's FWIW-yet-honest endorsement in the New Yorker: "Speaking as someone so irretrievably square that I not only never listened to the band but didn't even know anyone who liked it, I can't imagine a tribute more fitting than this."

Amy Odell talks with Corbijn for New York, where Sara Cadace's got a chart: "Transmission: The Many Children of Joy Division."

Online listening tip. Jeffrey Wells calls up Corbijn.

Earlier: Far more enthusiastic reviews from Cannes, Toronto and the UK.

Update: "Control will certainly mean something to people who consider Joy Division part of the music of their lives. (I stand accused.)" Salon's Stephanie Zacharek: "But the picture is so beautifully made, and so sensitive to its subject, that I hesitate to set it before my fellow late-baby-boomers as just a nostalgia trip: In addition to being one of the most beautiful movies ever made about rock 'n' roll, it also works, quite simply, as a story about a gifted and deeply troubled young guy who just couldn't hold it together. Sometimes the stories you think you've heard a million times before are merely universal." Also, a talk with Corbijn.

Update, 10/11: Jennifer Merin talks with Corbijn for the New York Press.

Updates, 10/12: "Corbijn and [screenwriter Matt] Greenhalgh can't shoulder too much blame for not answering what may be an unanswerable question, but they do deserve to be rapped for wasting the kinetic rush of Control's first hour on a second half so turgid that it would verge on overkill even at half the length," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club.

Hugh Porter profiles Corbijn for Time.

Posted by dwhudson at October 10, 2007 1:30 AM