Totally Under Control (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Wednesday, November 18

PG-13 Running Time: 123 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • This movie will anger and upset you and lay bare the rhetoric and gaslighting that has defined America’s response to COVID-19.

  • Gibney, and his team of filmmakers, take a workmanlike, journalistic, investigative reporter’s eye on the origins of COVID-19 and the month-by-month response in the United States - featuring many individuals in the crosshairs of the outbreak.

  • Facts are important. Truth is relevant.

NO

  • If you were a supporter of the Donald Trump presidency, and/or believe America has handled its response to COVID-19 expertly well, you will not be able to hear what Gibney’s team has prepared for viewers - fair and factual though it is.

  • With more than 250,000 dead in the United States from COVID-19 or COVID-19-related symptoms, Totally Under Control is going to be a very difficult watch anyway - but especially if you are someone directly impacted by the realities of this virus.

  • If you believe COVID-19 is a hoax - though you need to watch this movie - you were never watching this anyway. Also: Wear a mask and think of your neighbors, friends, and family and less of yourself.


OUR REVIEW

Built in secret over five months, and finished the day prior to President Donald Trump’s testing positive for COVID-19, Totally Under Control is a damning, incendiary look at the Trump Administration’s botched response to the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Quick note: If any of those words you have read feel unfair and/or partisan in nature, I suggest you click somewhere else. You are simply not ready to have this conversation.

Co-directed and narrated by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, Going Clear), this investigative film is another of Gibney’s stellar journalistic achievements. A far less salacious filmmaker than, say, Michael Moore, Gibney’s steady, factual breakdown of our COVID-19 response is gutting, but nonetheless necessary and important.

Beginning with the onset of the virus as first detected in China in December 2019, to the first American to test positive in January 2020 in Seattle, Washington, Gibney walks us through the Trump Administration’s meandering, dismissive, and horribly misguided response, resulting in more than 250,000 Americans having died either directly from COVID-19, or from comorbidities accentuated and exploited by the Coronavirus.

Those who still somehow believe COVID-19 is a hoax, or who somehow insist on believing this entire pandemic is overblown will be silenced by the film very quickly. Gibney, working with his directorial team of Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, has brought together an unimpeachable group of participants. Through a number of video chats, Gibney interviews former administration officials, scientists, epidemiologists, reporters, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and two whistleblowers – Rick Bright, an immunologist and former federal health official (recently appointed to the Biden-Harris Transition Team following the 2020 Presidential election), and Max Kennedy, Jr., a volunteer who served on a team assembled by Jared Kushner to acquire ventilators and PPE for the government’s national stockpile of materials to combat the virus’ spread.

One-by-one their testimonials buffer against Gibney’s workmanlike summation of a pandemic which has effectively darkened the world’s morale and vitality. Much of the information we have seen on the daily news: The President’s assertions that this will all go away, his dubbing COVID-19 as the “China Virus,” his peddling of conspiracy theories, his tweets, and his continual undermining of experts assembled to serve on Vice President Mike Pence’s Coronavirus task force.

When Gibney and his team step back from culling together an array of news footage and let their individuals speak their truth, Totally Under Control becomes a maddening, disquieting tale of ego, hubris and rudderless, ill-advised and irresponsible leadership leaving thousands of lives behind in its wake.

Emotions run high, and more than one individual breaks up when talking about how the Administration exacerbated the tragedy by initial inactivity, or by engaging in behaviors and decision-making which continually undercut the sensible, urgent work being done to try and stem the flow of positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in our country.

At times, Totally Under Control is simply overwhelming, likely triggering an emotional response. The cavalcade of misinformation, politicizing of masks, and overall conflicting messages from the President and Vice President, as well as the intentional silencing of experts at the expense of touting individuals who either seemingly lie without conscience or have no idea what they are talking about, seems to be an almost gleeful exercise in gaslighting or simply playing with people’s lives. Gibney does find time to slip in those still-stunning reveals President Trump shared with journalist Bob Woodward, reminding us that the President knew weeks before the first case appeared in the United States how deadly this virus would potentially become.

The idea that this is just a Michael Moore-style hit piece simply does not hold water. Gibney is not using humor or cracking jokes to pot-shot or low-blow his subject. His team’s workmanlike, investigative approach to laying out a timeline and factual blow-by-blow narrative is effective, authentic, and powerful.

Perhaps the bigger question Gibney and his team grapple with and never quite find an answer for is, basically, how did we get here as a society?

So many people were ready to consult, lead, and support efforts to minimize community spread and contain COVID-19 in the United States and, in turn, steer response around the world. They could see the imminent outbreak dangers coming, yet were cut off and turned around repeatedly. Why? And for what gain? With more than 250,000 Americans dead (as of this writing) and cases spiking to all-time daily and weekly highs – the Trump presidency will be tied to those statistics and this response for generations to come.

In an era where facts are challenged for merely existing, Totally Under Control has the audacity to embrace them; creating a historical record, with testimonials and archive footage, that leaves just one takeaway…

Our COVID-19 response never had to be this way.

CAST & CREW

Documentary Featuring: Rick Bright, Max Kennedy Jr., Kathleen Sibelius, Michael Shear, Scott Becker, Michael Bowen, Beth Cameron, Caroline Chen, Thomas Frieden, Victoria Kim, James Lawler, Eva Lee, Kim Jon Yong, Vladimir Zelenko.

Director: Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, Suzanne Hillinger
Written by: Alex Gibney
Release Date: October 13, 2020
NEON