Critics reviews

Impressionistic, inventive and artful, “Joy Division” is held up by tons of key interviews... but the manner in which their recollections are conveyed is continually resourceful and engaging (the way audio clips are displayed as sound waves reminiscent of Unknown Pleasures’ artwork is rather inspired).

Gee's interviewees barely consider the implications of Joy Division's almost supernatural grandeur, since most of them remember that time as a wild, entertaining ride with an unexpected end. But late Factory Records founder Tony Wilson offers a compelling theory, suggesting that Joy Division merely fed off Manchester's post-industrial decline.

Fantastic rough-edged archive material is edited together with flair and sensitivity, all the key participants chip in, the music is marvellously integrated: this is, then, what music documentaries aim for, but so rarely achieve.

Joy Division is a welcome addition to the legacy of material that surrounds the band, and may be the definitive history of Joy Division thanks to the quality of the speakers, the wonderful production work by Gee, and the co-ordination by writer and punk historian Jon Savage.

The excellent documentary Joy Division, scripted by Jon Savage and directed by Grant Gee... is an informative, enlightening study of the group. It's an imaginatively assembled compilation of TV clips, newsreel footage, pictures of Manchester now and then and new interviews.

Although the three surviving members tell it their way, this is not your usual cut-and-paste rock-doc but a visionary piece of filmmaking in its own right, shaped around an insightful muso-socio-geography.

Thought-provoking and genuinely heartfelt, 'Joy Division' is a riveting watch whether you're a fan or not, primarily down to the frankness with which remaining band-members Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook recount their experiences and sense of helplessness as they witnessed their singer's epileptic fits and mental breakdown.

Gee focuses on the minutia of Joy Division for much of the picture: the graphic design of tIrinhe album covers, contemporary photographs, and the band’s interpersonal relationships. In this way, he incorporates the audience into the story so that he can finally eulogise the band with the utmost credibility.

The music’s coiled, haunted sound and nihilist lyrics, the documentary argues, are inseparable from the decaying postindustrial dystopia that was Manchester at the time.

[The] doc concludes on an inspiring note, as the surviving trio reformed as New Order and enjoyed a fabulously successful run. Gee’s camera views a revived Manchester as a sort of living legacy from Joy Division.