Control is a biopic about the life of legendary musician Ian Curtis. Curtis was the lead singer of the English post-punk band Joy Division. At the age of 23, just as Joy Division was set to break America, Curtis committed suicide. There, I gave away the ending.

Whether you love or hate the music, Control is a must see film. The judges at the BAFTAs, Cannes, the British Independent Film Awards, and the Melbourne International Film Festival certainly agree, judging from the swag of awards they have dished out to the film. Admittedly those that love the music will get more out of it, but there is a lot of broad appeal in this debut feature from famed music video director Anton Corbijn.

Control succeeds in appealing to a wide audience by telling its story in both an accessible and very artistic manner. At its heart it is a tragic story of an everyman unemployment clerk who finds unexpected fame, is struck by epilepsy, and struggles to cope with the pressures the two put on his private life. The story unfolds with a sense of poetry in its pacing and style. This is a beautiful tragedy.

Tony Wilson is a twat - a self-absorbed pseudo-intellectual who takes himself seriously in a way that is impossible to take seriously. Fortunately, he's also in the right place (Manchester), at the right time (the late 70s, 80s and early 90s), to be involved with some of the great music of the era, by bankrolling Factory Records, not so much a company as an experiment in human nature - one of the most influential and least financially successful recording companies of all time. With bands like Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays, plus the rave venue The Hacienda, Factory was the centre of the musical universe for one brief shining moment in the 80s.

This mostly-true story (as Wilson says "when you have to choose between truth and legend - print the legend") is told with a suitable lack of respect for anybody's sensitivities - all the bickering, boozing and stupidity that goes into creating great art is on display. Winterbottom's direction makes the film feel true to the spirit of the era - rebellious, strangely touching, often hilarious and above all, incredibly cool. Coogan captures Wilson as a man who knows what cool is, even if he can't be cool - a hilariously self-justifying, disingenuous narrator who keeps on denying that he's the protagonist in his own life story. It's about how even the style-less wankers can change the culture - an inspiration to any of us style-less wankers in the audience.