Directed by Anton Corbijn • 2007 • United Kingdom, United States
Starring Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara
With this bleakly beautiful immersion into the legendary 1970s Manchester postpunk scene, photographer-turned-filmmaker Anton Corbijn evokes the agony and ecstasy of Ian Curtis—the Joy Division frontman whose plaintive vocals and death by suicide at age twenty-three made him an icon of outsiderhood. In a fully embodied performance that transcends imitation, Sam Riley stars as the sensitive Curtis, who electrifies audiences with his intense, live-wire stage presence—even as a failing marriage and his increasingly troubling epileptic episodes send him spiraling towards oblivion.
Up Next in Rock Biopics That Don’t Suck
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The Runaways
Directed by Floria Sigismondi • 2010 • United States
Starring Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael ShannonWith this authentically scuzzy take on the rise of original punk girl group the Runaways, director Floria Sigismondi captures the mix of grit, glam, and adolescent abandon that propelle...
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I’m Not There
Directed by Todd Haynes • 2007 • United States, Germany
Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl FranklinHow can a film portray the many sides of the shape-shifting enigma that is Bob Dylan? Director Todd Haynes’s audacious gambit is to enlist six actors to play him in this innovati...
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Nowhere Boy
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson • 2009 • United Kingdom
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Kristin Scott ThomasBased on the memoirs of John Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird, this revealing account of the future Beatle’s formative years vividly recreates the world of 1950s Liverpool,...
