Over the last four years, Donald Trump‘s administration has kept fact checkers and truth-seekers several levels occupied. Those who aren’t actively correcting his statements busily dig for precedent or corroborating evidence to prove their take on reality isn’t simply yanked out of thin air, that it is accurately represented.
Such a task shouldn’t be difficult. But “Totally Under Control” shows how needlessly tough it is under an administration that has pitted science against politics and the economy, and for experts with extensive backgrounds on pandemic response against Trump loyalists more eager to remain in the president’s good graces than to curb the spread of a pandemic he’d rather would simply disappear, like magic.
“Totally Under Control” is a 123-minute indictment of the Trump administration’s disastrous mishandling of this pandemic, which is exactly what a person expects from an Alex Gibney documentary. No fan of this administration, Gibney has had an especially prolific 365 days thanks to this administration’s bungling; this is his third Trump-related documentary released since last November, after “Citizen K,” and HBO’s “Agents of Chaos.” Continue reading.