Ctrl is an Indian screen life film available on Netflix (in the US). It’s in the same vein as films like Searching and Missing mixed with a great big – but also kind of obvious – cyber security thriller.

It’s about a social media influencer couple who have been dating for years… until she catches him cheating (while live streaming). They break up up and the internet piranhas go to work… so she downloads an AI assistant who will wipe his digital footprint from her life. But maybe the AI is up to something more sinister… or maybe not? I dunno. <waves hand around wordlessly>

This is a pretty decent conspiracy thriller that starts life as a ritual public embarrassment drama. It slowly hints that her AI assistant – which is constantly actively deleting her ex from her digital life – is up to something. And then the scale of the problem grows and maybe there’s more real-world malfeasance going on… or maybe it’s just conspiratorial anxiety.

The film knows how to represent social embarrassment and squawks a lot about big tech security invasion nightmares. Whether its onto something or just the usual paranoia is kind of up to you. But it also knows how big corporations fake apologies and casually roll over your life. So I’m mixed on its messages.

Ultimately, it’s a decent but not great digital conspiracy thriller. But it lacks something in the threat it suggests and the AI assistant thing kind of fizzles a bit. Pretty decent film if this is the kind of thriller you want to watch.

Score: 76