Movieline Online

Not that the world couldn’t use another scathing expose on the dangers of nuclear power in third world countries. You just wouldn’t expect it to come under the title Papaya Love Goddess of the Cannibals (Severin Film, 89min); and certainly not from Joe D’Amato, a director whose previous career highlight involved a woman jacking off a Clydesdale. But this 1978 skin-flick gets so sidetracked on social issues and island politics that it forgets to deliver on the title’s promise of death and debauchery. Things start promisingly enough with some foreplay involving the aforementioned tropical fruit and an unexpected castration, but our guide through the overly plotted story, Sirpa Lane (infamous for her own animal act in Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast), is far from masturbatory material. Co-star “Melissa” spends most of the film topless, but her sex scenes are such a timid touch ‘n grope act the occasional flash of full frontal male nudity is actually a welcome break in the monotony. In the ...

CONTROL Genius Products, 122 mins. When Control opens, Ian Curtis is a malnourished Manchester lad living on a diet of David Bowie and pilfered prescription meds. By the end of the film, he’s a suicide case only two days away from a promising tour of the states as the lead singer of Joy Division, next in line to inherit Britain’s well-tarnished title as “Best Band in the World.” Rock history is littered with these tragic ironies, victims of success and excess who’ve ascended to the throne of musical martyrdom. Outside of the UK, Curtis is only a minor figure, like some lesser saint who only attracts the most desperate prayers from his small but devoted faithful. Control, based on the book by Curtis’ widow and directed by video auteur Anton Corbijn, isn’t interested in making the man a legend; but turning the legend into a man. Shot in B & W, the cinematic equivalent of pressing on vinyl, Corbijn (who snapped shots of the band early in his career) meticulously recreates the groups’ ...