Release date: Tuesday, Oct. 13 (VOD); Oct. 20 (Hulu)
Directors: Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunya and Suzanne Hillinger
Run-time: 2h 3 min
Age rating: NR
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
It's almost time to watch Totally Under Control online to see the hard-hitting documentary about the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Co-directors Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunya and Suzanne Hillinger filmed the doc in secret over the course of five months earlier this year. They focus on how President Donald Trump's administration made choices that led to the infection of over 7 million Americans and the deaths of more than 200,000. The documentary mixes interviews with scientists, medical professional and government officials to examine how the country's leadership failed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Totally Under Control begins on January 20, 2020, the day of the first confirmed American case of COVID-19. From there, it follows the Trump administration's mismanagement of the response, like how the president himself said, "One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear."
As one interviewee explains, "We, the scientists, knew what to do for the pandemic response. But leadership would not do it. It is time to lay our careers on the line and push back.”
The documentary arrives on the eve of the 2020 election, at a fraught time when Trump himself has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and his poll numbers are declining against former vice president Joe Biden.
Here's everything you need to know about how to watch Totally Under Control online right now. Plus, check out the trailer below:
How to watch Totally Under Control with a VPN
If you're stuck abroad — away from countries where Totally Under Control is available on video on demand — you will likely run into geo-fenced restrictions on the platforms and services you can use. But with the help of a virtual private network (VPN), you can watch Totally Under Control and all the other services you already pay for no matter where you are.
Based on our testing, the best VPN is ExpressVPN, which is easy to use and delivers fast internet speeds, making it simple to set up for streaming in no time at all. It also works on practically any device, starting with iOS and Android and including streaming devices such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Apple TV. Plus, game consoles like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
How to watch Totally Under Control on streaming
Totally Under Control begins streaming Tuesday, Oct. 13 on VOD.
The movie will be released by Hulu a week later, on Oct. 20.
If you want to watch the movie on VOD, you have a number of options among the major digital content marketplaces.
Other streaming sites:
- Fandango Now
- Google Play
- Amazon Prime Video
Totally Under Control reviews
The reviews of Totally Under Control are uniformly positive. Here's a round-up of what movie critics are saying.
IndieWire: "The movie assembles a whirlwind of whistleblowers and disease experts to break down each step of the timeline, lacing it together with smooth editing and ironic music cues that makes the overall experience both absorbing and frustrating, though not surprising in the least."
The Hollywood Reporter: "The filmmakers avoid insulting a politician who deserves anything they might wish to sling at him, opting instead to let facts speak for themselves."
Entertainment Weekly: "And if [Gibney] leaves some moments over-editorialized and certain provocative questions unanswered, the film (available on demand Tuesday) is still, for nearly every moment of its two-plus hour runtime, frankly infuriating."
Collider: "Some may wonder who Totally Under Control is for, but I think it’s good that this documentary exists if for no other reason than it recaps a catastrophe. February to April 2020 feels like an eternity ago in our fast-paced news cycle, so it’s good to lay out exactly what happened and how we got here."
NPR: "... it might feel redundant to anyone who's been glued to the news lately. But it's still bracing to see the details laid out as forcefully and with such measured anger as they are here."
