Don't let me get me

Rating: 7/10 (25 February 2008)

I recommend "Control" as partial detox for "Lost" addicts. Everybody looks and talks exactly like Charlie. Gosh, I can't wait for season 4. My second favorite thing about this movie is Sam Riley's on-stage dancing. Staying more or less in one place, he flails his fists about pretty wildly, like he's extremely mad at someone, probably himself. There's more Adam Green than Joe Cocker in the way he moves, but also more aggression than playfulness. Like he's trying to beat himself up. Did Ian Curtis really dance like that? Fine performances by Samantha Morton and Toby Kebbell. Alexandra Maria Lara, in the part of Curtis' Belgian girlfriend, is almost as bad as English plumbing. Don't get me wrong. The skinny jeans and the trench and the bangs all look good on her. I just wish she would keep her mouth shut. And didn't smile so much. Half the time, it's the affected coquetry that ruins her performance. The rest of the time, it's her sheepish smile which she, obviously, has no way of controlling. It seems you rarely get good looks and good acting in the the same person. Yeah, I know, like that needed proving.