Control

Here's a good piece by Matt Greenhalgh who wrote the Ian Curtis biopic Control.

I can tell you that as good as this film is it is not improved by having two 50-year-old jakeys drinking cherry brandy sat next to you.

The film looks amazing, as you might expect from a top-class photographer like Anton Corbijn. One scene in particular, after Curtis's baby is born, is framed like a classic photograph and lingers in the same way as you would take in a still image.

It's certainly pretty bleak but handles Curtis's battle with epilepsy well. The performances are all pretty strong. Sam Riley as Curtis though is the obvious stand-out.

"In the research phase, I had a hitlist of people who knew Ian to go to see to get it right. As a biographer, you've got to be right. Some can try to bully you into presenting their version of Ian - we'd have a showdown and I was just waiting to get "well, you didn't even know Ian" thrown into my face. But Tony Wilson just said: "Fuck 'em, go write the myth". I felt free after getting his permission."