I found "Joy Division: Under Review" to be extremely disappointing. Admittedly I thought I was getting something completely different. When I saw this title on Netflix I was under the mistaken impression that it was the documentary that was produced last year to coincide with "Control" (a horrid Ian Curtis bio-pic). I'd wanted to see that since before it was even released, having seen a promo on YouTube.
Even so, this documentary is awful. 5 or 6 self-absorbed music critics/biographers pontificating on the history and social ramifications of the band and their work. It is obvious from the start that none of them were even remotely associated with the band themselves or in their circle at that time. I doubt that any one of them knows too much more about Joy Division than your typical fan. They certainly shed no new light on their subject and, what's worse, they propagate the whole "Ian Curtis as Visionary Icon" bullshit. One even goes so far as to describe JD's music as about, among other morbid things, suicide. Please.
Okay, so I guess such rockcrit discourse is to be expected in a film that clearly states in the title "Under Review". Maybe I just expected more from it...more performance video, more insider information, an interview with band members (all we have here is a TERRIBLE recording of "Ian Curtis' Last Interview", audio only, so muffled that subtitles are required to make out the words). To be sure there ARE some performance clips, but none of them top the 5-10 second mark and every one of them is of the lowest video quality imaginable. I KNOW there are better quality prints available for some of this stuff, so one has to wonder why the producers settled for this substandard crap. Low budget constraints, I'm sure.
I can't recommend this film to anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the group. I'm not even sure it would be a good introduction to Joy Division for someone who doesn't know who they are and may be interested. "Joy Division: Under Review" trades in cliches, stereotypes and pretentiousness. There is very little depth in the film. If it has ANY redeeming quality, it's the inclusion of quite a few rare photographs of the band (at least I THINK they're rare...I haven't seen them before). But I would expect people would want that kind of thing in a book, not necessarily in a DVD documentary.
1 Star
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