Being a huge Joy Division fan, I was quite torn when I heard a movie was being made about their tragic story. Or rather, the tragic story of their frontman Ian Curtis. After all, the remaining members went on to fame and fortune as New Order — one of few bands to overcome the loss of a frontman.

Upon hearing that “Control” featured my favorite German “Schauspielerin” Alexandra Maria Lara, and was being filmed by famous photographer Anton Corbijn, my initial icy impressions started to thaw a bit.

The result is a moving, exquisitely filmed story light on mythology and a bit too heavy on realism. “Control” was flimed entirely in black and white, which helps accentuate one of its main characters, the gloomy, industrial city of Manchester, England.

Fortunately, Sam Reilly plays extremely well as Ian Curtis. No complaints here. His wife’s character, equally well played by Samantha Morton, avoids superficial pitfalls which might have been expected. My main complaint is that the build up to Mr Curtis’ tragic end seems to be a bit too simple.

Another problem is the character of Ian’s mistress. Alexandra Maria Lara portrays her merely as someone nice to look at. She barely manages to whisper out her lines, perhaps due to shyness on her part of acting in a foreign language. Aside from obvious beauty, we don’t really see what drew Ian Curtis to her.

All in all, however, “Control” is very solid, with surprisingly good live scenes and haunting cinematography. Recommended.

Walk Hard is a portrayal of fictional music legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly). He’s slept with 411 women, married three of them, spawned 22 children and 14 stepchildren. He starred in his own 70’s TV show, befriended Elvis, The Beatles, a chimpanzee, has taken all drugs known to man, and has tried to get off all of them. Thanks to this mystique, or in spite of it, Cox has become a national idol.

Hollywood’s hottest comedy talent of the moment has struck again: this time, hit producer and screenwriter Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up“, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin“) picks apart successful music dramas such as “Walk the Line”, “Ray”, “The Doors”. Top comedian John C. Reilly kicks out the jams in the starring role as a loveable American full-blooded music legend. A number of high profile cameos spice things up. Jack White of “The White Stripes” portrays Elvis, Eddie Vedder of “Pearl Jam” shows up as himself, and Jack Black tries his luck as “Paul McCartney”.

Walk Hard, which also features past and present Saturday Night Live cast members, is much like Cox’s career itself — at times things are looking up, other times they’re dreadful. In my opinion, the finest SNL feature film remains “A Night At The Roxbury” which never took itself seriously, but also managed to be dramatically believable. “Walk Hard” makes the mistake of taking topics which are not satire-worthy like Johhny Cash losing his older brother or Ray Charles his eyesight, and trying to cash in on jokes from them. Admittedly, Cox’s loss of smell does land a few jokes later on in the film, but for a clever man like Apatow, these gutter dunks are unforgiveable.

Though I thought the premise was a bit primitive, I was really looking forward to seeing Reilly in a starring role. I thorougly enjoyed his role as a monologue pick-me-up cop in Magnolia. I would have to say that he ties with William H. Macy as its finest feature. In a way, I can understand the allure of playing the starring role in a big Hollywood production. On the other hand, Reilly should take his fine acting chops to higher ground, and stay away from low-brow junk like “Walk Hard” and the garbage Will Ferrell collaborations (“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rick Bobby”, “Step Brothers”).

Buy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2-Disc Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray] or Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition) from Amazon.