The central question in Control, the new biopic by Anton Corbijn, is whether Ian Curtis is capable of holding anything is reserve, or whether he holds far too much. Curtis, the troubled lead singer of Joy Division, would argue the former. “Don’t they know how hard this is for me?” he asks as he hears the clamor of a crowd demanding his presence in his first show back after a failed suicide attempt. “They keep wanting me to go further, and I don’t know if I can.” A riot erupts, but only after he closes himself down, unable to continue on stage.

Continue reading He Lost Control →

In praising The Office, I wrote about how well it does capturing the feeling of being trapped, stuck in a job that you hate but unable to see any real potential for change. Killer of Sheep, a film by director Charles Burnett, reminds us what it’s like to be really stuck. His camera takes us on a wide-ranging tour of 1970s Watts, presenting bluntly the poverty and isolation that plagues the area’s residents.

Continue reading The Essence of Quiet Desperation →

I’ve never really been able to have low expectations for things. Setting myself up for disappointment never mitigates its arrival; instead, it just makes me feel like I should’ve known better than to have wasted my money.

After seeing The Simpsons Movie Sunday night, I can safely say I don’t feel like I wasted my money. The opening Itchy and Scratchy sketch primes the crowd with its excess, and the movie maintains the manic pace through the first act, with gags about church and inter-species sexual confusion, as well as a killer mob scene.

Continue reading Simpsons Did It! Simpsons Did It! →