Joy Division review

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One group, two albums, three movies (counting 24 Hour Party People) and, surprisingly, it’s Grant Gee’s doc that gets closer to both Joy Division as a band and Ian Curtis as a person. While Control was a pristine, neo-kitchen-sink portrait of a sadly unknowable boy, Gee uses unheard, naked testimonies (Curtis’ lover Annik Honoré) and the singer’s speaking voice – captured weeks before his suicide – to glean a feeling of the man from those he touched. Gee’s arty manipulation of rock-doc staples (talking heads, archive film) has a vitality worthy of the music, making decayed bootleg footage luminous while contextualising JD within Manchester’s psychic landscape. Emotive and funny – the New Order boys puncturing the bloated theorising of critics with bursts of anecdote – Joy Division is no glum retrospective of a ‘depressing’ band. You won’t walk away in silence…

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The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.