Film Review: TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL (2020): A Straightforward Summary of the U.S.’s Mishandling of the COVID-19 Pandemic That Stresses Scientific Rigor Over Political Theatre

Totally Under Control Review

Totally Under Control (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger, and featuring interviews with Scott Becker, Dr. Taison Bell, Michael Bowen, Dr. Rick Bright, Beth Cameron, Caroline Chen, Dr. Tom Frieden, Dr. Alex Greninger, Max Kennedy Jr., Victoria Kim, Dr. James Lawler, Dr. Eva Lee, Francis Riedo, Kathleen Sebelius, Michael Shear, Dr. Kim Jin Yong, and Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.

Remember how things felt at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? You know . . . when things were changing on a near-hourly basis and it was harder than ever to keep facts and fiction straight? Remember that crippling anxiety and uncertainty that overtook all of us then (and which, for many people who lost loved ones and employment, has yet to let up)? Do you want to experience all of that distress again in a compact, two-hour-long dosage?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, then you’re in luck. Totally Under Control, the fast-produced doc from Alex Gibney and his Jigsaw Productions label, charts the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the United States’ massive mismanagement of it led to a rapid outbreak.

For anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past nine months, this film won’t play as a great revelation. Totally Under Control is very much in-line with Gibney’s style, wherein he simply provides more cursory details for a widely-known topic in a slick, straightforward manner (see: Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief). Narrative competence takes precedent over theme or form, and whether or not you see that as a side effect of his alleged “documentary factory” form of production is up to personal preference. In the end, it all works to make Totally Under Control play less like a groundbreaking exposé and more like a loaded refresher course.

But it’s those cursory details that make Totally Under Control have the sticking power it does. We as casual viewers and contemporary citizens know that the U.S. bungled its pandemic response, but we probably aren’t aware of exactly how they did it. Gibney and his co-directors Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger remind and/or reveal to us the notes that underpin the countrywide catastrophe, from the financial greed of CDC leadership that prevented a quicker preparation timeframe to the mysterious month-long delay by the FDA that blocked medical facilities from administering more effective testing (a fact which the directors admit to still not having any direct explanation for). Rather than a big revelation Totally Under Control is a collection of little ones, which when added up will stand as a lasting testament to one of the Trump administration’s greatest blunders (in case we somehow forgot all of their other moral failings through some unfathomable strain of political amnesia).

Despite reminding us of that early pandemic anxiety, Gibney, Harutyunyan, and Hillinger stick to a perceptible through line that allows us to chart the chaotic waters of early 2020 with steadfast competence. While the amount of information they pack into a tight 123 minutes is incredible to behold, learning about their production process – from the distribution of research amongst the three of them, to their invention of a ‘COVID-cam’ that allowed subjects to be remotely interviewed with precise cinematographic precision, to the need for four lead editors to parse through and craft a story from all of the footage  – is even more fascinating. It makes for an impressive final time-capsule of a final product.

Although, it is a bit disappointing that the filmmakers’ scope begins and ends at the U.S. government’s/Trump administration’s handling of the virus, barely touching upon the other issues that COVID-19 has laid bare. Any other dirtbag leftists that are terminally online like me have likely heard reference to our current state of affairs as an “epistemological crisis”. That is, a three-way confluence of economic, social, and climate crises, all of which the novel coronavirus has its barbs in as either a cause, a side effect, or a premonitory warning of things to come. The fallout from the pandemic is complex, and even a jam-packed two-hour doc can’t cover all of its facets. (Gibney admits to the focus staying in the early months of the pandemic, as “everything we were experiencing [later on]…were direct results of those early decisions that were made” and that he, Harutyunyan, and Hillinger couldn’t be “chasing every news story”.) However, COVID-19 is exposing the social upheavals of economic divide, classist violence, ecological destruction, and systemic racism within our trembling structure of late capitalism with such blatant urgency, and those points could’ve been allotted more than just momentary nods. After all, medical and political malfeasance leave more than just an immediate body count.

Regardless, Totally Under Control is a focused snapshot of the United States’ fumbling at a moment when leadership was most needed. It reminds us, in precise detail, how the Trump administration and others in power traded in rapid response for partisan points . . . a substitution of egalitarianism for political gain. Like other political-adjacent entertainment from this year, Totally Under Control is less of an educational tool and more of a reminder for us to steer clear of complacency. And it succeeds at that, albeit in an infuriating, terrifying way.

Rating: 7/10

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