Control has revived my belief in the medium of cinema, it is a beautiful film about the short life of Ian Curtis who was the lead singer with the band Joy Division.

Joy division were a band I never really got around to listening to for some reason, except for their well known song ‘Love Will tear Us Apart‘, and I had no knowledge of Ian Curtis prior to seing the film. This means two things, firstly that my love of the film had nothing to do with any prior love for the man or his music, and secondly that I can’t tell you how close to reality the film is.

However I can tell you that this film feels extremely honest.

Control is based on a book written by Deborah Curtis, Ian Curtis’s wife, and she is also credited as a co-producer, also the original members of the band, now known as New order, did the score - however Deborah Curtis is not reported to have liked the film.

The film presents what comes across as a very balanced picture of Ian Curtis, and those around him, with the bad in everyone presented along with the good.

Above all this film paints a portrait of a man - unlike biopics such as Walk the Line or Ray which seem only to serve to perpetuate the legends.

Director Anton Corbijn does a magnificent job in beautifully gritty black and white, the cast are superb, the music (often performed by the cast) is excellent and the script is wonderful. If I had the tiniest criticism it would be the one or two overly comic moments which don’t seem to fit.

Sam Riley, playing Curtis, does an incredible job of presenting both a mesmerising on stage presence and, off stage, an ordinary young man struggling with his illness, fame and relationships.

This film strips away the bullshit associated with fame and deals sensitively with it’s tragic subject matter which is all too often either glorified or tip-toed around.

I can’t recommend this film enough. May it never again be said I hate everything…

I’m conflicted. I want Hollywood to be producing political films which challenge the actions of our Governments and make us think about society and how we want our world to be, but its’ recent efforts make me want to beg them to stop.

Rendition was bad enough with it’s weak storyline and overly simplistic view… but I’ll take a weak storyline over no storyline any day. Lions for Lambs hasn’t a hint of a storyline to be found anywhere.

In the place of a storyline we get a smug and sanctimonious lecture - not only is there no storyline, there isn’t even any credible dialogue. Streep, Cruise and Redford take it in turns to deliver patronising monologues, with supporting cast around them to prompt them onto their next sermon.

Redford is excruciatingly smug as the college lecturer who wants to save the world one student at a time, and he delivers his twee monologue in an unbearably superior manner.

Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep trot out cliched performances, leaning heavily on their past performances and never once leaving their own particular comfort zones. Michael Peña, Derek Luke and Andrew Garfield aren’t much better, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and blame the director.

All these actors obviously need a strong director to keep them on track in order to deliver watchable performances, and Redford is not up to it.

The ‘plot’ revolves around a new initiative in the War On Terror, which was actually a quite unnessecary device to deliver this lecture and one can only guess that it was hoped that including scenes involving military action would get a few bums on seats so that Redford could deliver this admonishing lecture to the general public.

Rather than go to see this film you should simply watch the trailer, there is absolutely nothing else to be gained from watching the film in it’s entirety.

Cork actress Mary-Louise Mc Carthy will be staring in series 2 of Aifric on TG4 at 17:00 hrs every Tuesday and Thursday starting this evening. I was treated to a sneak preview of one of the episodes at the launch in Dublin last month and it was quite amusing. You should all tune in to have a look for yourselves and check out the official website.

The screening of ‘The Shed‘ and ‘Sir Henry’s’ sold out no less than three times at the Cork Film Festival, as you may remember reading here before. Pretty impressive for a no budget 40 minute documentary. For those of use who were unable to get tickets, fear not, The Shed is now availablbe on DVD for only €15

…a historical document lamenting the end of an era as FIFA’s all-seater rule forced the club to replace The Shed with a new stand.

The songs, the chants, the good times and bad are all vividly portrayed in this fantastic film and of course that emphatic and fitting Eircom League title that was gallantly won on the very last night of the Shed itself in 2005 forms the centre piece.

Those of you who know me know that I have zero interest in football, and yet after watching the trailer I wanted to see this film. Yes, I know all the people involved in making the film, including director Ed Godsell, but it’s the character of the film and the fact that it documents something so uniquely Cork that is no longer present that made me want to watch it.

I love a good music video, I love t-shirts, and I love animation. Put them all together and you get this amazing video from French group Justice, with animations from French designer So Me.

The track features sampling of The Jackson 5, and is very catchy, especially if you’ve been liking CSS and other retroelectro. Yes that’s a word I made up just now.

Some of the t-shirts are even available to buy on a site called Sold Out

Great article here on the making of the video.