The story of Joy Division’s lead singer Ian Curtis, from his schoolboy days in 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.0/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.91/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Anton Corbijn
Production
NorthSee, EM Media, 3 Dogs & a Pony, IFF/CINV
Cast
Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson, Toby Kebbell, Craig Parkinson, James Anthony Pearson, Harry Treadaway, Robert Shelly, Andrew Sheridan, Richard Bremmer, Tanya Myers, Martha Myers Lowe, Matthew McNulty, David Whittington, Margaret Jackman, Mary Jo Randle, Ben Naylor, John Cooper Clarke, James Fortune
Curator Review
Verdict
A stark, beautifully controlled music biopic that trades conventional rise-and-fall beats for atmosphere, grief, and emotional distance. Its black-and-white photography, restrained performances, and immersive use of Joy Division’s music make it especially compelling for viewers who want a serious, artful portrait rather than a glossy rock-star movie.
Best for
Joy Division fans
Viewers who like austere music biopics
Fans of black-and-white cinematography
People drawn to tragic, introspective character studies
Audiences interested in post-punk and late-70s British culture
Skip if
You want a fast-paced, inspirational music biography
You prefer highly expressive, psychologically explicit character writing
You dislike bleak endings and emotional detachment
You need a broad band-story with lots of backstage drama
Overview
Control is less interested in mythologizing Ian Curtis than in observing the quiet pressure around him. Anton Corbijn’s background in music photography shows in every frame: the film is composed with severe elegance, and the black-and-white image gives the story a haunted, documentary-adjacent chill.
Worth noting
Sam Riley’s performance is deliberately restrained, which suits the film’s detached perspective even when it frustrates viewers looking for more overt emotional access. The result is a portrait of alienation, illness, and creative intensity that feels more like a mood piece than a standard biopic.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the music itself and the way the film treats it as both release and burden. For audiences open to a somber, formalist approach, it’s one of the more distinctive rock films of its era; for others, its coolness may feel like distance.
Top Letterboxd reviews
amaya (4★) · 2765 likes
would recommend if you like joy division and/or pain and suffering
Bruno (4★) · 2217 likes
When Im sad I normally just listen to sad music but today I decided to watch the sad film about the sad guy of the sad band I listen to when Im sad.
Shikhar Verma (4.5★) · 2016 likes
The colour scheme is fuckin' black & white, and they fuckin' speak as if there's a golden shite. The fuckin' movies are all overblown, the fuckin' powers and all those fuckin' guns. The fuckin' people are fuckin' stupid, they fuckin' talk as if they know it.
The fuckin' music is fuckin' fucked, what sadness can give, not a fuckin' thing could. The fuckin' love is fuckin' unreal, with all the fuckin' dance and all them fuckin' seals.
The fuckin' cigarette is… more
russman (3.5★) · 1187 likes
I got an unknown amount of pleasure watching this
CinemaBean (2.5★) · 1118 likes
I felt more emotional reading Ian Curtis' Wikipedia page than I did from watching this film. And it's a crying shame because his story is tragic and his music is beautiful.
There is little to no character development at all in this; he falls out of love with Debbie for no apparent reason, he falls in love with Annik for no apparent reason, he has no chemistry with his band mates, he has no love for his daughter, and even… more