CTRL – Movie Review | Netflix (4/5)

CTRL (2024) on Netflix is a new thriller featuring an AI assistant and a screen-only POV. Well, until the very end of the movie, anyway. This thriller is intense and engaging until the end. Read our full CTRL movie review here!

CTRL (2024) is a new Netflix thriller that utilizes the screen-only POV we know from movies like Searching and Missing. This time, the main character is joined mostly by an AI assistant. However, this is not a movie about AI going rogue.

It’s simply a tool used for whatever you and anyone else decide. This can be good as well as bad, but the AI itself isn’t malicious, so we’re not in M3GAN or T.1.M. territory. The runtime is just shy of 100 minutes and utilizes it well, so you can expect a thrilling ride.

Continue reading our 2024 CTRL movie review below. Find it on Netflix from October 4, 2024.

Living in a digital world

With CTRL, we’re getting a solid Netflix thriller that just might make you realize how much we’re living in a digital world. You may already be very aware of this, but this movie still highlights some of the extreme ways we’re dependent on technology.

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In the beginning, everything looks good for Nella Awasthi (Ananya Panday) and her boyfriend Joe Mascarenhas (Vihaan Samat). The two have built a life and career as a romantic couple with a huge online presence and following.

They create content together as NJoy (their “shipname”, if you will) and nothing seems to happen in their life without a camera nearby. So what happens when they break up after having their lives so intertwined?

Enter the AI assisitant

Well, people will choose sides as with any other breakup. And place blame and get nasty. Only, these “people” are not friends of Nella or Joe – they simply follow them online. For obvious reasons, Nella experiences this much worse and wants to remove Joe from her digital life.

Someone suggests that she check out a new app called CTRL. It’s an AI app that will help you do just that; Regain control of your life!

The AI assistant quickly becomes immersed in every aspect of her life, but for Nella, this is a good thing. She regains control and starts to feel in power of her own life and future. However, could it be that she is actually allowing the AI and the company behind it to have too much control?!

Well, this is a thriller with some pretty (okay, very!) dire consequences for those who question the power of Big Tech, so the answer is obviously yes.

Watch CTRL (2024) on Netflix now!

CTRL was directed by Vikramaditya Motwane (AK vs AK), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Avinash Sampath (Ghost Stories) and Sumukhi Suresh (Pushpavalli).

I loved how this movie focused on the power of data in our world. Nobody reads the fine print, which is a key point of this movie; We accept terms blindly and tech companies bank on it.

Then again, we know this is the price for much free software – from games to social media – but do we understand it? In a world of deep fake and AI, can we even expect to keep up?! Probably not. CTRL is one example that the consequences may not be what we expect.

Ultimately, the ending of CTRL is as heartbreaking as it is brilliant… and downright cruel.

CTRL premieres on Netflix on October 4, 2024.

Other movies premiering on Netflix this same day include the sci-fi horror The Platform 2 and the sci-fi thriller It’s What’s Inside. Both are worth checking out.

Details

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Writer: Avinash Sampath, Vikramaditya Motwane
Cast: Ananya Panday, Vihaan Samat