Totally Under Control
Filmmaker Alex Gibney “has a bloodhound’s nose for corruption and failure,” said Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times. His latest film is a chronicle of America’s disastrous response to the Covid-19 pandemic that becomes a devastating indictment of President Trump. But “there are no cheap shots here,” just an accumulation of evidence that grows “thoroughly infuriating” as we see how easily the bulk of America’s deaths and job losses could have been avoided. Working in secrecy over recent months, Gibney and two co-directors gathered firsthand testimony from government scientists and health-care officials to offer a forensic account of a slow-motion tragedy, said
Leah Greenblatt in Entertainment Weekly. Some speakers get emotional, including a 2016 Trump supporter and manufacturer frustrated by how many times the Trump team turned down his offer of N95 masks. A former volunteer on Jared Kushner’s medical-supply task force says the team was so inexperienced, it secured not a single shipment. Because the film’s message is “fiercely partisan,” Totally Under Control “will be cheered or deplored accordingly,” said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. But however harsh its judgments, the movie’s most shocking scenes are the ones showing Americans attacking one another over the wearing of masks. In those moments, the film functions “not as a polemic but a mirror,” and “the picture isn’t pretty.” ( In select theaters or from $4 on demand; coming to Hulu Oct. 20.) Not rated as advertised,” said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe: Not terrible, but “dispiritingly generic,” the movie wastes a talented cast on a toothless story about a lovable codger who takes over his grandson’s room, triggering resentment and a volley of pranks. De Niro, Uma Thurman, and young Oakes Fegley are at least pros, while Christopher Walken, playing a sidekick coot, gives his lines “a delightfully weird spin.” ( In select theaters) PG
Time
When Fox Rich’s husband was sentenced to 60 years in prison for bank robbery, the Louisiana mother of six started recording video diaries of the family to share with him. With those home videos laced throughout, the collage-like documentary that director Garrett Bradley has made about the family “feels like a poem or a prayer,” said Katie Walsh in the Chicago Tribune. Rich is a force; “you get the sense she could move a mountain if she put her mind to it.” (In select theaters or on Amazon Prime) PG-13
Yellow Rose
Diane Paragas’ intimate Texas drama offers “a universal tale of hope,” said Kate Erbland in IndieWire.com. Broadway’s Eva Noblezada stars as Rose, an undocumented Filipino teen who dreams of becoming a country singer but first must find a way to survive after seeing her mother dragged away by ICE agents. “Never sentimental or maudlin,” Yellow Rose “feels driven by a deep respect for the true-life stories that inspired it.” (In select theaters) PG-13