chesterfilms Blog

the first popular release from the rankin-bass team. narrated by the great burl ives who also sings the famous title song and silver & gold. fantastic characters like hermey the elf who would rather be a dentist, yukon cornelius the self-proclaimed "greatest prospector in the north", the abominable snowmonster (a.k.a., "Bumble"), and all the misfit toys. nothing says childhood christmas like claymation.

i can't remember the first time I saw this special. I just remember always knowing about it. everything works so well. directed by chuck jones who is most famous for his work on the loony tunes shorts. you can see the similarity between some of his loony tunes from that period. especially from the roadrunner and coyote stuff. narrated and voiced by the iconic boris karloff, and the fantastically whimsical song lyrics and story by dr. seuss. it's a wonderfully redemptive story that always seems to stay relevant each year.

control is a biopic of ian curtis, singer for the late seventies band joy division. anton corbijn, who makes his feature film debut is best known for his photography and music videos. control is beautifully shot in black and white, and each shot is composed like much of corbijn's rock photography. this is anything but the feelgood movie of the summer. curtis was a troubled kid who suffered from epilepsy, and ultimately killed himself at the young age of 23. sam riley and samantha morton give fantastic performances as ian and deborah curtis. morton is especially good and is able to pull off playing a 17 year old (she is thirty). they give two of the best performances of the year. the film focuses more on curtis than on the band, but there are some great performance sequences, and they found actors who look exactly like the members of joy division. it's a downer, but a very good film.