October 4, 2024 • 26 mins
Vikramaditya Motwane’s fascination with genre cinema continues. But his latest film, CTRL, isn't exactly going to win him any new fans.
We discuss the film’s mess of a script, which tries to cram in way too many ideas than it needed to. We also talk about its elaborate conspiracy thriller section and its melancholic third act.
Along the way, we praise Ananya Panday for bringing nuance to a string of performances that could be misinterpreted as belonging to the same category.
—
Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.
The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow The Long Take on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and YouTube. Write to us at thelongtakepod@gmail.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hi, I'm welcome to the long takeThis week we're discussing the
new Indian FX movie by good I would want it.
It's called control. Although spend we only because
of I guess the computer energy whatever starts and one day
makes mostly interacting with screen because it's like a
screen like movie one of those searching or missing types.
If you've seen those, which is why I was the producer the
movies in the world. Yeah, I didn't.
(00:38):
Like it much? It was, Yeah, it was quite.
I mean, I can't even say that the ideas were ambitious and the
execution and was not great because the ideas were also kind
of tired. You know, I was struggling to
find something original or fresh.
Yeah, I think my main issue was that it's like a investigative
(00:58):
thriller. At least after the 40 minutes
was like just sort of like go nowhere, which is not thrilling
at all. Yeah, but that's mainly because
it's not really uncovering anything incredible, you know?
Yeah, It's making observations that everybody in the world
except Nella seems to be kind ofaware of.
(01:20):
She's shocked that this could happen.
But then she's supposed to be like an audience surrogate for
like an audience who are basically not in touch with like
what big tech have been doing for tech.
But that's the thing, right? You don't have to be a social
media influencer or even like, perpetually online to be
familiar with the the basics of what this movie is kind of
(01:41):
trying to point fingers at. Right?
Yeah. I got like bored by like, you
know, the message of it. I'm just like, why can't you
just make a thriller where someone goes missing?
Why do we? Why does there have to be like
this big tech message around it?Yeah, it didn't have to be
because it you're right, it kindof drastically kind of takes a
left turn. Yeah, Yeah.
Which? Like, it's like for half an
hour, it's like, yeah, like, youknow, relationship, the current
(02:02):
and they're like spend 15 minutes introducing the AI,
which is like, boring because he's cracking the worst jokes
ever. And just like, get him out of my
face. And then finally it gets into
like the meat and bones of it orlike, yeah, now we're kind of
like this person has gone missing and like Nella's gonna
spend the entire movie like looking for him.
And then, as you said, yeah. And they just take a left turn
in the middle is like, well, nowwait, I have to like show on
this tech, you know, piano aboutlike how big tech is like
(02:24):
ruining our lives and no one's really paying attention to it.
And then then we dump like a fire, 10 minute like more as if
like we needed that. Yeah, and that happens like
towards the end of of her investigation, right, Just when
she's about to kind of pull the plug.
So like even if you even if you were living under a rock and had
no idea about any of this top talk to the movie itself has
(02:46):
kind of largely explained what the setup is, right.
And then he kind of drops that monologue on you, which I don't
know the purpose of that is either to like just impart
information or just to get to get remind you that listen to
this character Joe that we introduced.
We haven't forgotten him just because he's dead.
I don't understand the purpose of this is one of those writing
(03:08):
problems. And I don't understand Ekto.
This is a Hindi movie issue where the people who write
stories aren't the same people who write dialogues, right?
So it feels like Motwane must have sat down and come up with
like a basic plot. And then it's been kind of
palmed off to somebody else and they've come up and like just
(03:28):
jazz it up with like whatever they think is how people talk,
which is not this movie. And then it feels like the
product of not a singular voice,right?
It feels like 15 people have just pulled whatever ideas they
have into this, and which is whyit kind of just takes those
weird turns. And it wants to be like a
vlogger, a love story also. But then it also wants to be a
(03:49):
story about a certain generationand how they interact with the
Internet. And then it kind of turns into
this paranoid Turner. And we haven't even gotten to
like the third act, which I guess we will later.
Yeah. But just like, yeah, none of it
should be like like grabs you. I feel like that's like what are
you waiting for? And like, you know, I don't
really care for any of the like love story things.
(04:11):
You could easily cut that out and I would still care if he
went missing. Like I think at the same level
about. So like I don't see the value in
that. You could essentially start off
like him going to say. And if anything, that would give
your movie at least like some thrust from the get.
Go. I mean, honestly, I think it's a
very weird move of the movie to make this dude disappear after
he has cheated on her. Yeah.
Because then a part of me is like, that's what you wanted,
(04:34):
right? Go on.
Like, it's fine, I don't really care, but then when the dead
body of yours is when the movie shifts gears, right?
And. Not sinister enough to like
really push for like the AI thing, right, because like for a
second, when Alan has like she dubs him or eight, sorry, says
that like this is what you wonder, right?
You wanted him gone from your life for a second.
(04:54):
I'm thinking, you know, maybe they're going to go like full
sci-fi and like say that the AI did something right, like the AI
called maybe like someone on like a website.
It was like who will do some? They will do this, I'll assign
it like you don't know, at leastgo like if you're going sci-fi
like that way. No, it's just like a product of
a company who finally did it. It's just like it's very human
at the end of it. It's like just you know what you
(05:15):
would expect in godfather that some guy is doing it at the end
of the day. So the AI at the end of it is
almost like secondary, like it'salmost like tangents and like
this company made this product and they're like going into a
data or whatever and then then do this amazing deep fig or
whatever. Like that's like that's like it
was the AI to like do the third actress.
It's not like central to like the.
(05:36):
Yeah, I mean, the AI could have just pretended to be a person
and hired like a hitman to kill.Exactly.
Which is what like for a minute when she first goes to sleep
right after giving like full access to her computer, it
really feels like there's a human behind the AI because the
AI opens like terminals and types and commands which are
like feel like, you know, who would have programmed this like
this? This is skills point.
And like they know Nella is likeJoe's girlfriend and they've
(05:59):
killed like they've gone after Joe, which is why like that
looking for evidence on her computer as well.
So that really felt like, you know, there was literally a
human sitting behind Alan and like putting in those commands
in, but then that never like sort of comes back again.
It just literally feels like it was programmed that they're fine
trying to find elements of project Unicorn like on
everyone's machine who entrails.Control.
Yeah, yeah. The sense is that this is how
(06:19):
the AI would behave with anybody.
Yeah. I thought the targeting Naila
right? It's like I started thinking of
even the comment was just left on her photo and her fake
Instagram is embedded by some control or some agent like was
like, Oh yeah, if you place it here, she might click on it.
And then that's how we get her into the system.
(06:39):
Yeah, I was confused about that.I didn't know if it was entirely
like a fluke that yeah. It's like, yeah, she just kept
pulled into it, like by some troll who commented and like
they was like, oh, thank God shecame here.
Now we have access to a system. Or was it like a plant thing?
Yeah. Because it's the Joe's kind of
secret Crusade is revealed to usafter she kind of the AI, right?
(07:05):
Yeah, Yeah. Which is another odd choice
because it feels like a little too much information is being
dumped on you. Like suddenly now I'm supposed
to also consider his secret kindof alter ego, which she didn't
know about. I don't know.
How is that possible, right? Like it's insane, almost like
you've been together for five years, etcetera, etcetera,
(07:25):
etcetera. You know, But then this movie, I
don't know, like I know it's about AI, but it's like it's
struggles to kind of understand how human beings work, right?
Like not a single person in thismovie behaves like anybody that
you and I would know, which is ahuge problem because you need a
certain level of basic kind of understanding to follow this
(07:48):
person on this journey, which isn't simply like, oh, I had a
bad breakup and I want to erase this person.
That's something that we can getbehind.
But that's not what your movie is, right?
It's like this huge conspiracy thriller for the most part.
And for me to follow Nella on this journey, I need to kind of
believe her. But the whole time I'm thinking,
you idiot, you signed your life away to an AI who was obviously
(08:12):
within this. It's not like the movie is
playing it, you know, a little cute and being like, oh, no,
this is like a harmless, you know, whatever.
But like with the villain here, we can see it from minute 1.
Yeah, you reveal it like you tell show that after then she
goes to bed. She he's already like, that's
it. Like you've already.
Yeah, shown your hand. Like, I would be careful about
(08:32):
what access I grant on my phone.And my phone doesn't have a face
or a voice. Yeah, you know, But this person
is supposed to be like, her bread and butter is the
Internet. This kind of stuff happens in
horror movies, right? But then you kind of let it go
because it's part of the grammarof horror movies.
Oh, yeah, yeah. They're supposed to make stupid
decisions because that's how, you know, that's how that kind
(08:53):
of goes on. And a part of it is also, like,
pointing at the screen and me, like, don't do it.
Don't do it, you know. Why it does train credulity as
well, right? Because if she's given even the
AI task, do we like go through like whatever like lacks of
photos and erase it? Why does she need to spend like
video call time with this? Like why can't AI just work on a
(09:15):
server? Why does she need to have the
app open on her laptop the entire time?
No, but that's because the moviewants to do 15 things right?
Yeah. Suddenly, like her life, just
because like Joe's gone out of it.
It's almost like she's become friendless and she doesn't have
anyone to rely on. She starts talking to AI, who's
become like a therapist for her.I'm just like, why is there no
one in your life at this time? How have you become this
(09:35):
isolated? Like it makes a make sense given
how public you are. You should.
No, no, but that see, if the movie was only about that, if
the movie was her, I would buy it because then the movie is
trying to make very obvious statements about, you know,
loneliness in this day and age. But that's one of the 15,000
things that it's trying to do, which is why it feels like I'm
(09:56):
not taking this seriously now, right, because it's not like the
AI kind of wins her trust over time.
It literally happens in 10 minutes and she's like, okay,
you have all my secrets. Yeah, we have 5 minute montage
where she basically goes from losing or social media fame to
gaining new social media fame overnight.
Also, you don't have to be like a social media person or even
(10:19):
you know someone this age who constantly has a phone in their
hand or whatever to know that you shouldn't like keep your
camera on the whole time. Yeah, actually sleeping camera
and like microphone. Why I think as just a woman,
these are things that you would be constantly wary of, you know,
which again, I'm not thinking, what do you, what planet have
(10:42):
you come from? You know, these are basic
things. Like if she had just
acknowledged that before sleeping camera instantly,
that's a gesture that I would connect to and be like, oh, this
is a real person now. You know, she's thinking like
anybody else would in this situation.
She's suspicious. She's not really sure she has to
be one over etcetera, etcetera. The movie needs to do that hard
work. Yeah.
(11:02):
Which isn't willing to do because it's not interested in
doing that because it wants to get to the thriller stuff.
Yeah. And pick pickle in one of my
book and have Yeah. Totally.
Like you're just jumping. You're like Abhi menu yet?
Agenda the Abhi agenda up next agenda year.
The only thing I'll say that really worked for me in this
movie is the when she kind of loses access to her accounts and
(11:25):
you know, that's going to happenbecause we see it happening.
You know, this, this AI kind of takes over all her, you know,
socials and etcetera, etcetera, when she loses access to her
accounts. But then when she's trying to
regain access, I think that was the the, the anxiety that you
might feel when that happens is something that kind of worked
for me. But that's such a tiny thing,
right? You think the very end of the
(11:47):
movie. Are you talking about the where
she sort of like like goes into different emails to figure out
his possible? That one, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, which was probably like the only like technical thing,
but like that really sort of studied like how that would work
and like you would need like a backup and you go to the backup
basically sort of like almost not social engineering, but like
technical sort of understanding.But that's something that, you
know, a lot of people might justbe like when I've had that
(12:08):
happen to me and I know how thatkind of feels.
If only the whole movie kind of had the sort of, you know, not
intellect, but just the understanding of how the mind
works when it's confronted by with, you know, issues online.
You know, But Speaking of stuff like this, a big problem for me
was also the invented kind of apps.
(12:30):
Yeah, I don't know why they would do that because it's like
it's actually doubly like funny for me because the guy was like
pioneered or like at least like done multiple of these movies.
The guy, he's involved, right. And he's made movies where like
they've always used like real life apps.
The searching like guy, I spoke to him like he was specific on.
We wanted to ensure it felt likeyou have access.
(12:53):
Yeah. That's why they use Chrome, they
use FaceTime, they use Skype, those kind of stuff people like.
I know these apps. I've seen them, right?
Which is huge. Yeah.
And why would you? Who's gonna come and stop you?
Why would Google come back? You can't show you do.
You can't show Instagram why youhave to create these like weird
names which are not even close to it.
Like it's not even like YouTube you next community or like
(13:16):
Instagram Gramo Rama like Tao, right?
Yeah, I don't know, because obviously we've seen searching
etcetera, etcetera. So we know that you can do it,
yeah. And even the OS, they don't even
do the OS. The Mac OS becomes some shepherd
nonsense. I'm like, what?
No one's going to stop you from doing that.
Yeah, which is weird. And I understand that not
everybody is going to have like a Mac, and a Mac interface might
(13:37):
feel alien to people who don't use it.
That being said, this feels alien to everybody, 100% of the
audience, right? Not just 50, but a movie that
wants you to kind of almost preemptively like look on
certain corners of the screen, which is what searching you did
so wonderfully, right? Because you're like, oh, I know
what that tone means, you know, or I know what that alert means.
(14:00):
So my mind and my eyes instantlygo towards that corner,
etcetera. This one you can't, you're
missing out on that kind of instinctive.
I don't know. It's been long enough as, you
know, as human beings, we've hadphones and.
Yeah, other devices where some sort of chemical is released in
your mind when you hear certain noises.
(14:21):
Right. And these interface have become
like second nature. Like if you moment I see I'm
like, yeah, that's I am in it. The moment I see like Bob and
I'm like, I know where like thatpops.
Up so it's almost like you can get away with so much and a lot
of heavy lifting can be done on your behalf only if you know how
to use those kind of tools to your advantage, especially in a
(14:42):
movie set on a computer screen. And the movie is kind of letting
go of so much potential drama byI don't know, I'm sure they have
their reason. I'm sure Meta would be very
angry if they called the mantra thing Meta.
But then there's just one thing you can just whatever you go
Instagram. Yeah, That should not be like,
you know, that I'm sure you can keep like, you know, ambiguous
(15:03):
and fake if you want. Like it can be like forget meta.
It's like, it can be like Geo. Yeah, but we.
Are we're talking about the interface?
Mostly, yeah. Interface like is better.
You have to like, you know that it's there's no sure control.
The EI thing you I'm sure you have to like go there because
otherwise completely be like I we haven't made that kind of
product. But everything else you
absolutely need to like, show things people interact with on a
(15:25):
daily basis. I can't imagine because they
would have had to come up with these new designs then animate
all of that. But you would hardly even though
searching people because you have to zoom in on these things,
you can never screen record and get away with it.
The picture of screen record. But yeah, sure, you can just
lease out those animations like someone must have created like a
(15:45):
bunch of like a big database. There's like the VFX team like
credited like right after like the cinematograph or whatever,
who's like clearly that tells you that, you know, they sat
down and created all these interfaces at like whatever
resolution. Because then you're basically
recording, you're shooting like in like first camera and you're
putting that footage inside likeanimation and then you're like
doing all that stuff around, right?
You know, like this is like hardwork.
So that like stuff takes a lot of while, but then you're just
(16:06):
like letting go of like the basic like built in value.
Do you? Want to talk about the when the
movie kind of breaks this illusion?
Like the very end, yeah, I mean,I was OK with that.
Especially like, also like the do it like quite nicely in terms
of like the cinematic inertia changes, the cameras, the lenses
changes and all the the editing of a changes in terms of like,
you know? It becomes a more. 20 movie
(16:27):
basically yeah, I was fine with that.
That you have to know you fine it's like you're doing something
like differently. You want to show like you don't
want to like like push things into like a hacky just because
things have been going this way,so we should continue this way.
But by then I'm I was basically like out of the movies.
I also like didn't really care what was happening.
(16:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It takes.
So it's it's one of those situations where you're just
like heart. He can now I'll just watch this
without really bothering about how it ends.
Although I did like the ending. I'll say I thought that.
Yeah, I think. What the ending sort of did for
me, which like this movie, like sort of it doesn't stuff that's
true because it's so busy and the whole trailer stuff and like
(17:09):
finding out the investigation stuff like where this is going
is that it like creates this sort of like unease, you know,
like of this like character who's like she's been craving
like and as you know, her character and call I'm gone off
like just like online validationand like that's what she lives
on. One thing that said really what
in the ending for me was like when she said a post is like
he's like spent hours and kicking these like photos of
these like bakery items she's made like father's shop.
(17:32):
And she posted online and just sit sitting there waiting for
like the first comment, like disappointed because something's
happening and there's no attraction.
And she does get a comment. It's from her best friend.
She's just like almost reacts asif like she doesn't like care.
It's like it's only matters whenlike she gets variation from
strangers. Yeah, and and just that she
creates like AI version of Joe, which is a little creepy and
(17:54):
it's. Yeah, it's like next level
creepy that the the company thatbasically killed the dude is now
like appropriating that asset and to like selling AI version.
Yeah. And and she's so like out of it
that this is the only kind of connection that she sees.
Almost like I have to return. It's like masochism towards.
Yeah. She's always like, resigned to
it, like her fate, like, becauseshe clearly accepted, like the
(18:16):
plea deal or whatever they gave her the company.
That's how she gets out in the first place.
Yeah. And then now she's sort of like,
like going backwards. Probably the best attempt at
commentary that movie does. It's almost like, no, this is
where we had it, no matter like what we do.
With the frustration then is like why distract yourself with
all the screen life nonsense like you just made a
straightforward movie about? These yeah, why don't we spend
(18:38):
120 minutes on like other stuff that like didn't land when you
go to. Basically made a more like
basically like horror but like more sort of heinous or
whatever. I don't understand.
So even AK versus AK, I rememberbeing like, you're so focused on
the form of the movie, right? Which was a mockumentary in that
case, right? That you're forgetting like
(18:59):
basic character stuff, right? What?
Why did you even start to make this movie is the question you
need to ask at this point. Was it to make a documentary or
was it to be like? Have the meta fun of like
putting these two people like everyone wants.
Yeah, similarly with this one, right?
What? What would did you want to talk
about loneliness and kind of addiction to just other human
connection etc and how we are losing it?
(19:21):
Or did you want to make a screenlive?
Only one answer is correct. If you just wanted to make a
screen live movie, then I don't know.
I don't know if we needed to watch it.
Yeah, I would be really curious to find out at what point that
the moon guy got involved in this.
Like did he come with the pitch?Was he pulled in later?
I saw some interview in which heexplained this actually said
(19:42):
that Timur Beck member of got intouch with him I think via
people and asked if they'd be he'd be interested in making a
screen life sort of situation. But he departed the project
before it got off the ground. So this is entirely Motwane
right? So I'm guessing but.
(20:03):
That's still enough that you have to credit him.
Yeah, I guess like legal yoga, Rosmi Akepele, Bola.
Hey, you know, maybe do you wanna know?
And he said yes. And then he's gone ahead and
made a screen life movie. It doesn't even have to be the
same story, but whatever. So I guess.
But I from what he was saying, he wasn't really involved in any
way. Which I guess sort of explains
like what seeing as 10 minutes ago is that why are the
(20:24):
interfaces like fake? I think he would have not gone
for that. Can't.
Just be him, right? There has to be like 15 other
decision makers who come in and said no, you can't do that,
right? Because otherwise we would like,
we would discuss it. The thing exists.
Yeah. It's you've been proven.
Yeah. You've seen a movie.
Just like this is like I feel like more much more common in
Bollywood, just like the very like very often involving real
(20:45):
life products. Yeah.
The last movie I just saw was like, you know, the actual
Instagram and like we spoke about that.
It was like so well done in terms of, you know, like, well,
this is how people would behave.They were and so how they would
talk. This is how they were like
people and stuff. But I was like one of the rare.
Ones our body is so low like oh real Instagram wow yeah because.
(21:07):
It's just like treated to like these like, you know, like
sometimes you just get like green screen.
You can tell it's like a screenshot.
It's not even a real interface. So we're just like involved,
just like like a photo. I'm so disappointed that Moto
Anne has made this. This is the kind of stuff that
you would complain about in somenonsense like Hui #5 or.
(21:30):
What do you make of just doing these social media things
back-to-back? Oh yeah, we didn't.
Call last year, then like call me Ben now like.
I didn't see Call Me By. I saw like an episode or two.
I got bored of that. So I've seen the entire thing.
It's it's garbage. It's like utter garbage.
But I'm just like touch upon like it's like it's fun, like
positivity. Also like it's very different
from this. At least like Koga in control.
It's similar to the sense that, you know, shit like the negative
(21:52):
side of social media, but like, call me base full like, yeah,
social media is amazing and you can achieve this amazing thing.
And she's like very like naturalletter and she has like many of
the followers and it's all great.
Which is what? Like Dharma?
You expect me see? No, I mean, I think she's very
good as an actor because I thinkwe discussed this during Koga
also. Is that in Hindi movies?
The half the problem is that youmiscast people, right?
(22:14):
And then you blame them for doing a poor job because the
directors have no idea what they're doing, right?
You can't have like Sara Ali Khan doing like E Vatan, Mere
Vatan, where nobody's telling her what to do, like Ekta, she
shouldn't be in that movie. And then you have like in that
people at the helm, right? So at least.
Which is so common. Yeah, you have to basics, right?
You have to cast people appropriately.
And I think that she's very goodbecause these aren't the same
(22:38):
characters. I think it's a reductive way of
looking at things and saying that Kogayamka and control,
she's playing the same person, which is, yeah.
I wouldn't say that. Yeah, yeah, it is different.
Although I can imagine Lokia Kahenge, I can imagine people
saying exactly that. Or she's just playing a version
of herself, or she's just playing someone who's like a
Gen. Z kind of influencer wife,
(22:59):
whatever. Yeah, it.
Doesn't help that her character in Call Me Way is called Bella
and here it's Bella. Yeah.
But then from the two episodes that I watched of that show,
she's completely different. It's a completely different
performance. It is very different.
Yeah, it's like that all is likefull like bubbly positivity.
Yeah. So you have to kind of strike
that over the top kind of glossytone in that performance right
here. It's more kind of lived in and
Kobe, Hong Kong was more different.
(23:20):
It's more similar to the third act of this movie, right?
Yeah, yeah. It's like full melancholic,
like, you know, like like that'swhat I thought I'd say that last
time. And it's like the break the
screen life element. But the impressive thing about
this movie is that a lot of it relies on close-ups of her and
just long, long kind of stretches of her looking at the
(23:40):
camera and then having to do a lot of stuff.
A lot of it is just silently kind of observing and processing
information. A lot of it is just reacting,
and obviously a lot it's almost.Like a it's like a theatre
production, right? It's like a one man.
Show it's full it's a lot of it is close-ups and and for our
superior performers and people were regarded as far superior
performers will struggle. But then yeah, I think it's it's
(24:03):
quite impressive to watch especially in a couple of
scenes, which is very good. So yeah, I thought she was
pretty good in this stuck. In a movie that doesn't seem to
know what to tackle. Yeah, I mean, obviously Motwan
is a far superior director than whoever else she's worked with,
especially early in her career. So he knows that other camera.
(24:23):
So here's what I need and here'swhat I need you to do.
And you can probably explain very efficiently what what needs
to happen. What the problem as you've
discussed with this movie is notthe performance or anything
else. It's just, it's just I want to
do everything. It's a script which is like 95%
of bond. It's a mess.
(24:44):
It's a mess, right? I guess full blown or have you
already done that? I mean, see, I can easily
predict that people will complain that she's playing
herself, which is the Ananya Pandey centric observation that
I'm 110 wasn't sure people will say it's the equivalent of
people things that only makes movies about rich people, which
(25:06):
is like, I always want me to like, tear my hair out.
But yeah, I don't know how otherwise.
I think a lot of older people have observed look down on
younger. So I mean, I know that I've
complained that this is a stupidcharacter and she makes stupid
decisions in the movie. But then I know that this
character is stupid. But I can almost predict like
(25:28):
what slightly older people beinglike a generation bigger.
Those are my 2 predictions of love.
Which I don't. Neither of them are like
basically like, you know, critical, like observation.
They're just like, this is what we thought of like 2 seconds of.
Observation. Yeah.
Movie thought. I don't know.
I don't know what people will belike.
Whatever. Fine.
(25:49):
Bring back Motwane from whateverhe did.
The. He did the show.
I keep forgetting which Jubilee,which I didn't like much.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was too cold for us.
But yeah, right. That does it then.
OK, that's all for this episode of The Wrong Take and follow us
on Facebook threads, YouTube andInstagram at the Long Tech
Board. You can direct to us at the Long
Tech board@gmail.com. Please leave us a reading and a
(26:11):
review where ever this episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm welcome to the long takeThis week we're discussing the
new Indian FX movie by good I would want it.
It's called control. Although spend we only because
of I guess the computer energy whatever starts and one day
makes mostly interacting with screen because it's like a
screen like movie one of those searching or missing types.
If you've seen those, which is why I was the producer the
movies in the world. Yeah, I didn't.
(00:38):
Like it much? It was, Yeah, it was quite.
I mean, I can't even say that the ideas were ambitious and the
execution and was not great because the ideas were also kind
of tired. You know, I was struggling to
find something original or fresh.
Yeah, I think my main issue was that it's like a investigative
(00:58):
thriller. At least after the 40 minutes
was like just sort of like go nowhere, which is not thrilling
at all. Yeah, but that's mainly because
it's not really uncovering anything incredible, you know?
Yeah, It's making observations that everybody in the world
except Nella seems to be kind ofaware of.
(01:20):
She's shocked that this could happen.
But then she's supposed to be like an audience surrogate for
like an audience who are basically not in touch with like
what big tech have been doing for tech.
But that's the thing, right? You don't have to be a social
media influencer or even like, perpetually online to be
familiar with the the basics of what this movie is kind of
(01:41):
trying to point fingers at. Right?
Yeah. I got like bored by like, you
know, the message of it. I'm just like, why can't you
just make a thriller where someone goes missing?
Why do we? Why does there have to be like
this big tech message around it?Yeah, it didn't have to be
because it you're right, it kindof drastically kind of takes a
left turn. Yeah, Yeah.
Which? Like, it's like for half an
hour, it's like, yeah, like, youknow, relationship, the current
(02:02):
and they're like spend 15 minutes introducing the AI,
which is like, boring because he's cracking the worst jokes
ever. And just like, get him out of my
face. And then finally it gets into
like the meat and bones of it orlike, yeah, now we're kind of
like this person has gone missing and like Nella's gonna
spend the entire movie like looking for him.
And then, as you said, yeah. And they just take a left turn
in the middle is like, well, nowwait, I have to like show on
this tech, you know, piano aboutlike how big tech is like
(02:24):
ruining our lives and no one's really paying attention to it.
And then then we dump like a fire, 10 minute like more as if
like we needed that. Yeah, and that happens like
towards the end of of her investigation, right, Just when
she's about to kind of pull the plug.
So like even if you even if you were living under a rock and had
no idea about any of this top talk to the movie itself has
(02:46):
kind of largely explained what the setup is, right.
And then he kind of drops that monologue on you, which I don't
know the purpose of that is either to like just impart
information or just to get to get remind you that listen to
this character Joe that we introduced.
We haven't forgotten him just because he's dead.
I don't understand the purpose of this is one of those writing
(03:08):
problems. And I don't understand Ekto.
This is a Hindi movie issue where the people who write
stories aren't the same people who write dialogues, right?
So it feels like Motwane must have sat down and come up with
like a basic plot. And then it's been kind of
palmed off to somebody else and they've come up and like just
(03:28):
jazz it up with like whatever they think is how people talk,
which is not this movie. And then it feels like the
product of not a singular voice,right?
It feels like 15 people have just pulled whatever ideas they
have into this, and which is whyit kind of just takes those
weird turns. And it wants to be like a
vlogger, a love story also. But then it also wants to be a
(03:49):
story about a certain generationand how they interact with the
Internet. And then it kind of turns into
this paranoid Turner. And we haven't even gotten to
like the third act, which I guess we will later.
Yeah. But just like, yeah, none of it
should be like like grabs you. I feel like that's like what are
you waiting for? And like, you know, I don't
really care for any of the like love story things.
(04:11):
You could easily cut that out and I would still care if he
went missing. Like I think at the same level
about. So like I don't see the value in
that. You could essentially start off
like him going to say. And if anything, that would give
your movie at least like some thrust from the get.
Go. I mean, honestly, I think it's a
very weird move of the movie to make this dude disappear after
he has cheated on her. Yeah.
Because then a part of me is like, that's what you wanted,
(04:34):
right? Go on.
Like, it's fine, I don't really care, but then when the dead
body of yours is when the movie shifts gears, right?
And. Not sinister enough to like
really push for like the AI thing, right, because like for a
second, when Alan has like she dubs him or eight, sorry, says
that like this is what you wonder, right?
You wanted him gone from your life for a second.
(04:54):
I'm thinking, you know, maybe they're going to go like full
sci-fi and like say that the AI did something right, like the AI
called maybe like someone on like a website.
It was like who will do some? They will do this, I'll assign
it like you don't know, at leastgo like if you're going sci-fi
like that way. No, it's just like a product of
a company who finally did it. It's just like it's very human
at the end of it. It's like just you know what you
(05:15):
would expect in godfather that some guy is doing it at the end
of the day. So the AI at the end of it is
almost like secondary, like it'salmost like tangents and like
this company made this product and they're like going into a
data or whatever and then then do this amazing deep fig or
whatever. Like that's like that's like it
was the AI to like do the third actress.
It's not like central to like the.
(05:36):
Yeah, I mean, the AI could have just pretended to be a person
and hired like a hitman to kill.Exactly.
Which is what like for a minute when she first goes to sleep
right after giving like full access to her computer, it
really feels like there's a human behind the AI because the
AI opens like terminals and types and commands which are
like feel like, you know, who would have programmed this like
this? This is skills point.
And like they know Nella is likeJoe's girlfriend and they've
(05:59):
killed like they've gone after Joe, which is why like that
looking for evidence on her computer as well.
So that really felt like, you know, there was literally a
human sitting behind Alan and like putting in those commands
in, but then that never like sort of comes back again.
It just literally feels like it was programmed that they're fine
trying to find elements of project Unicorn like on
everyone's machine who entrails.Control.
Yeah, yeah. The sense is that this is how
(06:19):
the AI would behave with anybody.
Yeah. I thought the targeting Naila
right? It's like I started thinking of
even the comment was just left on her photo and her fake
Instagram is embedded by some control or some agent like was
like, Oh yeah, if you place it here, she might click on it.
And then that's how we get her into the system.
(06:39):
Yeah, I was confused about that.I didn't know if it was entirely
like a fluke that yeah. It's like, yeah, she just kept
pulled into it, like by some troll who commented and like
they was like, oh, thank God shecame here.
Now we have access to a system. Or was it like a plant thing?
Yeah. Because it's the Joe's kind of
secret Crusade is revealed to usafter she kind of the AI, right?
(07:05):
Yeah, Yeah. Which is another odd choice
because it feels like a little too much information is being
dumped on you. Like suddenly now I'm supposed
to also consider his secret kindof alter ego, which she didn't
know about. I don't know.
How is that possible, right? Like it's insane, almost like
you've been together for five years, etcetera, etcetera,
(07:25):
etcetera. You know, But then this movie, I
don't know, like I know it's about AI, but it's like it's
struggles to kind of understand how human beings work, right?
Like not a single person in thismovie behaves like anybody that
you and I would know, which is ahuge problem because you need a
certain level of basic kind of understanding to follow this
(07:48):
person on this journey, which isn't simply like, oh, I had a
bad breakup and I want to erase this person.
That's something that we can getbehind.
But that's not what your movie is, right?
It's like this huge conspiracy thriller for the most part.
And for me to follow Nella on this journey, I need to kind of
believe her. But the whole time I'm thinking,
you idiot, you signed your life away to an AI who was obviously
(08:12):
within this. It's not like the movie is
playing it, you know, a little cute and being like, oh, no,
this is like a harmless, you know, whatever.
But like with the villain here, we can see it from minute 1.
Yeah, you reveal it like you tell show that after then she
goes to bed. She he's already like, that's
it. Like you've already.
Yeah, shown your hand. Like, I would be careful about
(08:32):
what access I grant on my phone.And my phone doesn't have a face
or a voice. Yeah, you know, But this person
is supposed to be like, her bread and butter is the
Internet. This kind of stuff happens in
horror movies, right? But then you kind of let it go
because it's part of the grammarof horror movies.
Oh, yeah, yeah. They're supposed to make stupid
decisions because that's how, you know, that's how that kind
(08:53):
of goes on. And a part of it is also, like,
pointing at the screen and me, like, don't do it.
Don't do it, you know. Why it does train credulity as
well, right? Because if she's given even the
AI task, do we like go through like whatever like lacks of
photos and erase it? Why does she need to spend like
video call time with this? Like why can't AI just work on a
(09:15):
server? Why does she need to have the
app open on her laptop the entire time?
No, but that's because the moviewants to do 15 things right?
Yeah. Suddenly, like her life, just
because like Joe's gone out of it.
It's almost like she's become friendless and she doesn't have
anyone to rely on. She starts talking to AI, who's
become like a therapist for her.I'm just like, why is there no
one in your life at this time? How have you become this
(09:35):
isolated? Like it makes a make sense given
how public you are. You should.
No, no, but that see, if the movie was only about that, if
the movie was her, I would buy it because then the movie is
trying to make very obvious statements about, you know,
loneliness in this day and age. But that's one of the 15,000
things that it's trying to do, which is why it feels like I'm
(09:56):
not taking this seriously now, right, because it's not like the
AI kind of wins her trust over time.
It literally happens in 10 minutes and she's like, okay,
you have all my secrets. Yeah, we have 5 minute montage
where she basically goes from losing or social media fame to
gaining new social media fame overnight.
Also, you don't have to be like a social media person or even
(10:19):
you know someone this age who constantly has a phone in their
hand or whatever to know that you shouldn't like keep your
camera on the whole time. Yeah, actually sleeping camera
and like microphone. Why I think as just a woman,
these are things that you would be constantly wary of, you know,
which again, I'm not thinking, what do you, what planet have
(10:42):
you come from? You know, these are basic
things. Like if she had just
acknowledged that before sleeping camera instantly,
that's a gesture that I would connect to and be like, oh, this
is a real person now. You know, she's thinking like
anybody else would in this situation.
She's suspicious. She's not really sure she has to
be one over etcetera, etcetera. The movie needs to do that hard
work. Yeah.
(11:02):
Which isn't willing to do because it's not interested in
doing that because it wants to get to the thriller stuff.
Yeah. And pick pickle in one of my
book and have Yeah. Totally.
Like you're just jumping. You're like Abhi menu yet?
Agenda the Abhi agenda up next agenda year.
The only thing I'll say that really worked for me in this
movie is the when she kind of loses access to her accounts and
(11:25):
you know, that's going to happenbecause we see it happening.
You know, this, this AI kind of takes over all her, you know,
socials and etcetera, etcetera, when she loses access to her
accounts. But then when she's trying to
regain access, I think that was the the, the anxiety that you
might feel when that happens is something that kind of worked
for me. But that's such a tiny thing,
right? You think the very end of the
(11:47):
movie. Are you talking about the where
she sort of like like goes into different emails to figure out
his possible? That one, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, which was probably like the only like technical thing,
but like that really sort of studied like how that would work
and like you would need like a backup and you go to the backup
basically sort of like almost not social engineering, but like
technical sort of understanding.But that's something that, you
know, a lot of people might justbe like when I've had that
(12:08):
happen to me and I know how thatkind of feels.
If only the whole movie kind of had the sort of, you know, not
intellect, but just the understanding of how the mind
works when it's confronted by with, you know, issues online.
You know, But Speaking of stuff like this, a big problem for me
was also the invented kind of apps.
(12:30):
Yeah, I don't know why they would do that because it's like
it's actually doubly like funny for me because the guy was like
pioneered or like at least like done multiple of these movies.
The guy, he's involved, right. And he's made movies where like
they've always used like real life apps.
The searching like guy, I spoke to him like he was specific on.
We wanted to ensure it felt likeyou have access.
(12:53):
Yeah. That's why they use Chrome, they
use FaceTime, they use Skype, those kind of stuff people like.
I know these apps. I've seen them, right?
Which is huge. Yeah.
And why would you? Who's gonna come and stop you?
Why would Google come back? You can't show you do.
You can't show Instagram why youhave to create these like weird
names which are not even close to it.
Like it's not even like YouTube you next community or like
(13:16):
Instagram Gramo Rama like Tao, right?
Yeah, I don't know, because obviously we've seen searching
etcetera, etcetera. So we know that you can do it,
yeah. And even the OS, they don't even
do the OS. The Mac OS becomes some shepherd
nonsense. I'm like, what?
No one's going to stop you from doing that.
Yeah, which is weird. And I understand that not
everybody is going to have like a Mac, and a Mac interface might
(13:37):
feel alien to people who don't use it.
That being said, this feels alien to everybody, 100% of the
audience, right? Not just 50, but a movie that
wants you to kind of almost preemptively like look on
certain corners of the screen, which is what searching you did
so wonderfully, right? Because you're like, oh, I know
what that tone means, you know, or I know what that alert means.
(14:00):
So my mind and my eyes instantlygo towards that corner,
etcetera. This one you can't, you're
missing out on that kind of instinctive.
I don't know. It's been long enough as, you
know, as human beings, we've hadphones and.
Yeah, other devices where some sort of chemical is released in
your mind when you hear certain noises.
(14:21):
Right. And these interface have become
like second nature. Like if you moment I see I'm
like, yeah, that's I am in it. The moment I see like Bob and
I'm like, I know where like thatpops.
Up so it's almost like you can get away with so much and a lot
of heavy lifting can be done on your behalf only if you know how
to use those kind of tools to your advantage, especially in a
(14:42):
movie set on a computer screen. And the movie is kind of letting
go of so much potential drama byI don't know, I'm sure they have
their reason. I'm sure Meta would be very
angry if they called the mantra thing Meta.
But then there's just one thing you can just whatever you go
Instagram. Yeah, That should not be like,
you know, that I'm sure you can keep like, you know, ambiguous
(15:03):
and fake if you want. Like it can be like forget meta.
It's like, it can be like Geo. Yeah, but we.
Are we're talking about the interface?
Mostly, yeah. Interface like is better.
You have to like, you know that it's there's no sure control.
The EI thing you I'm sure you have to like go there because
otherwise completely be like I we haven't made that kind of
product. But everything else you
absolutely need to like, show things people interact with on a
(15:25):
daily basis. I can't imagine because they
would have had to come up with these new designs then animate
all of that. But you would hardly even though
searching people because you have to zoom in on these things,
you can never screen record and get away with it.
The picture of screen record. But yeah, sure, you can just
lease out those animations like someone must have created like a
(15:45):
bunch of like a big database. There's like the VFX team like
credited like right after like the cinematograph or whatever,
who's like clearly that tells you that, you know, they sat
down and created all these interfaces at like whatever
resolution. Because then you're basically
recording, you're shooting like in like first camera and you're
putting that footage inside likeanimation and then you're like
doing all that stuff around, right?
You know, like this is like hardwork.
So that like stuff takes a lot of while, but then you're just
(16:06):
like letting go of like the basic like built in value.
Do you? Want to talk about the when the
movie kind of breaks this illusion?
Like the very end, yeah, I mean,I was OK with that.
Especially like, also like the do it like quite nicely in terms
of like the cinematic inertia changes, the cameras, the lenses
changes and all the the editing of a changes in terms of like,
you know? It becomes a more. 20 movie
(16:27):
basically yeah, I was fine with that.
That you have to know you fine it's like you're doing something
like differently. You want to show like you don't
want to like like push things into like a hacky just because
things have been going this way,so we should continue this way.
But by then I'm I was basically like out of the movies.
I also like didn't really care what was happening.
(16:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It takes.
So it's it's one of those situations where you're just
like heart. He can now I'll just watch this
without really bothering about how it ends.
Although I did like the ending. I'll say I thought that.
Yeah, I think. What the ending sort of did for
me, which like this movie, like sort of it doesn't stuff that's
true because it's so busy and the whole trailer stuff and like
(17:09):
finding out the investigation stuff like where this is going
is that it like creates this sort of like unease, you know,
like of this like character who's like she's been craving
like and as you know, her character and call I'm gone off
like just like online validationand like that's what she lives
on. One thing that said really what
in the ending for me was like when she said a post is like
he's like spent hours and kicking these like photos of
these like bakery items she's made like father's shop.
(17:32):
And she posted online and just sit sitting there waiting for
like the first comment, like disappointed because something's
happening and there's no attraction.
And she does get a comment. It's from her best friend.
She's just like almost reacts asif like she doesn't like care.
It's like it's only matters whenlike she gets variation from
strangers. Yeah, and and just that she
creates like AI version of Joe, which is a little creepy and
(17:54):
it's. Yeah, it's like next level
creepy that the the company thatbasically killed the dude is now
like appropriating that asset and to like selling AI version.
Yeah. And and she's so like out of it
that this is the only kind of connection that she sees.
Almost like I have to return. It's like masochism towards.
Yeah. She's always like, resigned to
it, like her fate, like, becauseshe clearly accepted, like the
(18:16):
plea deal or whatever they gave her the company.
That's how she gets out in the first place.
Yeah. And then now she's sort of like,
like going backwards. Probably the best attempt at
commentary that movie does. It's almost like, no, this is
where we had it, no matter like what we do.
With the frustration then is like why distract yourself with
all the screen life nonsense like you just made a
straightforward movie about? These yeah, why don't we spend
(18:38):
120 minutes on like other stuff that like didn't land when you
go to. Basically made a more like
basically like horror but like more sort of heinous or
whatever. I don't understand.
So even AK versus AK, I rememberbeing like, you're so focused on
the form of the movie, right? Which was a mockumentary in that
case, right? That you're forgetting like
(18:59):
basic character stuff, right? What?
Why did you even start to make this movie is the question you
need to ask at this point. Was it to make a documentary or
was it to be like? Have the meta fun of like
putting these two people like everyone wants.
Yeah, similarly with this one, right?
What? What would did you want to talk
about loneliness and kind of addiction to just other human
connection etc and how we are losing it?
(19:21):
Or did you want to make a screenlive?
Only one answer is correct. If you just wanted to make a
screen live movie, then I don't know.
I don't know if we needed to watch it.
Yeah, I would be really curious to find out at what point that
the moon guy got involved in this.
Like did he come with the pitch?Was he pulled in later?
I saw some interview in which heexplained this actually said
(19:42):
that Timur Beck member of got intouch with him I think via
people and asked if they'd be he'd be interested in making a
screen life sort of situation. But he departed the project
before it got off the ground. So this is entirely Motwane
right? So I'm guessing but.
(20:03):
That's still enough that you have to credit him.
Yeah, I guess like legal yoga, Rosmi Akepele, Bola.
Hey, you know, maybe do you wanna know?
And he said yes. And then he's gone ahead and
made a screen life movie. It doesn't even have to be the
same story, but whatever. So I guess.
But I from what he was saying, he wasn't really involved in any
way. Which I guess sort of explains
like what seeing as 10 minutes ago is that why are the
(20:24):
interfaces like fake? I think he would have not gone
for that. Can't.
Just be him, right? There has to be like 15 other
decision makers who come in and said no, you can't do that,
right? Because otherwise we would like,
we would discuss it. The thing exists.
Yeah. It's you've been proven.
Yeah. You've seen a movie.
Just like this is like I feel like more much more common in
Bollywood, just like the very like very often involving real
(20:45):
life products. Yeah.
The last movie I just saw was like, you know, the actual
Instagram and like we spoke about that.
It was like so well done in terms of, you know, like, well,
this is how people would behave.They were and so how they would
talk. This is how they were like
people and stuff. But I was like one of the rare.
Ones our body is so low like oh real Instagram wow yeah because.
(21:07):
It's just like treated to like these like, you know, like
sometimes you just get like green screen.
You can tell it's like a screenshot.
It's not even a real interface. So we're just like involved,
just like like a photo. I'm so disappointed that Moto
Anne has made this. This is the kind of stuff that
you would complain about in somenonsense like Hui #5 or.
(21:30):
What do you make of just doing these social media things
back-to-back? Oh yeah, we didn't.
Call last year, then like call me Ben now like.
I didn't see Call Me By. I saw like an episode or two.
I got bored of that. So I've seen the entire thing.
It's it's garbage. It's like utter garbage.
But I'm just like touch upon like it's like it's fun, like
positivity. Also like it's very different
from this. At least like Koga in control.
It's similar to the sense that, you know, shit like the negative
(21:52):
side of social media, but like, call me base full like, yeah,
social media is amazing and you can achieve this amazing thing.
And she's like very like naturalletter and she has like many of
the followers and it's all great.
Which is what? Like Dharma?
You expect me see? No, I mean, I think she's very
good as an actor because I thinkwe discussed this during Koga
also. Is that in Hindi movies?
The half the problem is that youmiscast people, right?
(22:14):
And then you blame them for doing a poor job because the
directors have no idea what they're doing, right?
You can't have like Sara Ali Khan doing like E Vatan, Mere
Vatan, where nobody's telling her what to do, like Ekta, she
shouldn't be in that movie. And then you have like in that
people at the helm, right? So at least.
Which is so common. Yeah, you have to basics, right?
You have to cast people appropriately.
And I think that she's very goodbecause these aren't the same
(22:38):
characters. I think it's a reductive way of
looking at things and saying that Kogayamka and control,
she's playing the same person, which is, yeah.
I wouldn't say that. Yeah, yeah, it is different.
Although I can imagine Lokia Kahenge, I can imagine people
saying exactly that. Or she's just playing a version
of herself, or she's just playing someone who's like a
Gen. Z kind of influencer wife,
(22:59):
whatever. Yeah, it.
Doesn't help that her character in Call Me Way is called Bella
and here it's Bella. Yeah.
But then from the two episodes that I watched of that show,
she's completely different. It's a completely different
performance. It is very different.
Yeah, it's like that all is likefull like bubbly positivity.
Yeah. So you have to kind of strike
that over the top kind of glossytone in that performance right
here. It's more kind of lived in and
Kobe, Hong Kong was more different.
(23:20):
It's more similar to the third act of this movie, right?
Yeah, yeah. It's like full melancholic,
like, you know, like like that'swhat I thought I'd say that last
time. And it's like the break the
screen life element. But the impressive thing about
this movie is that a lot of it relies on close-ups of her and
just long, long kind of stretches of her looking at the
(23:40):
camera and then having to do a lot of stuff.
A lot of it is just silently kind of observing and processing
information. A lot of it is just reacting,
and obviously a lot it's almost.Like a it's like a theatre
production, right? It's like a one man.
Show it's full it's a lot of it is close-ups and and for our
superior performers and people were regarded as far superior
performers will struggle. But then yeah, I think it's it's
(24:03):
quite impressive to watch especially in a couple of
scenes, which is very good. So yeah, I thought she was
pretty good in this stuck. In a movie that doesn't seem to
know what to tackle. Yeah, I mean, obviously Motwan
is a far superior director than whoever else she's worked with,
especially early in her career. So he knows that other camera.
(24:23):
So here's what I need and here'swhat I need you to do.
And you can probably explain very efficiently what what needs
to happen. What the problem as you've
discussed with this movie is notthe performance or anything
else. It's just, it's just I want to
do everything. It's a script which is like 95%
of bond. It's a mess.
(24:44):
It's a mess, right? I guess full blown or have you
already done that? I mean, see, I can easily
predict that people will complain that she's playing
herself, which is the Ananya Pandey centric observation that
I'm 110 wasn't sure people will say it's the equivalent of
people things that only makes movies about rich people, which
(25:06):
is like, I always want me to like, tear my hair out.
But yeah, I don't know how otherwise.
I think a lot of older people have observed look down on
younger. So I mean, I know that I've
complained that this is a stupidcharacter and she makes stupid
decisions in the movie. But then I know that this
character is stupid. But I can almost predict like
(25:28):
what slightly older people beinglike a generation bigger.
Those are my 2 predictions of love.
Which I don't. Neither of them are like
basically like, you know, critical, like observation.
They're just like, this is what we thought of like 2 seconds of.
Observation. Yeah.
Movie thought. I don't know.
I don't know what people will belike.
Whatever. Fine.
(25:49):
Bring back Motwane from whateverhe did.
The. He did the show.
I keep forgetting which Jubilee,which I didn't like much.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was too cold for us.
But yeah, right. That does it then.
OK, that's all for this episode of The Wrong Take and follow us
on Facebook threads, YouTube andInstagram at the Long Tech
Board. You can direct to us at the Long
Tech board@gmail.com. Please leave us a reading and a
(26:11):
review where ever this episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.