A First-Time Documentary Maker Comes to Terms With His Own Betrayal in Ctrl+Alt+Desire

There’s a growing category of true-crime documentaries that could be called “They Did It” — docuseries and features that make half-hearted attempts to keep the perpetrator(s) a mystery with padded run times or an overreliance on dramatic reenactments and drone shots. You really don’t have to watch more than the first 10 to 15 minutes of docs like What Jennifer Did, Love Stalker Killer, or I Just Killed My Dad to identify the guilty party.

A “They Did It” documentary isn’t to be confused with projects whose whole purpose is to shine new light on old cases. Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom found intriguing new layers in a decades-old murder investigation. With Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning, Jason Hehir put the inequities of the criminal legal system on full display. An American Nightmare smartly subverted the expectations of “They Did It” while taking the whole true-crime genre to task.

Ctrl+Alt+Desire is a “They Did It” documentary, despite the best efforts of Colin Archdeacon, a veteran director of photography making his directorial debut with this three-part Paramount+ series. Archdeacon began to interview Grant Amato in 2019, a Florida man who was accused of murdering his parents, Chad and Margaret, and brother Cody. Over the next four years, Archdeacon followed along as Amato tried to exchange exclusivity to his story for bond money, was put on trial, found guilty of all three murders, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and lost his appeal.

But Archdeacon knows the outcome of Amato’s case could be discovered by anyone willing to Google it, so he doesn’t hinge his doc on a big reveal. And though Ctrl+Alt+Desire suffers from the usual docuseries bloat, Amato seems to be working on a slow roll in the first hour. He’s almost surprisingly genial in phone and video interviews with Amato, which gives the convicted killer enough rope to figuratively hang himself.

And so it goes for much of the next two hours, as Archdeacon forgoes the foregone conclusion and instead tries to glean some insight into the murders. Why would a college-educated man who had been given every advantage and appeared to have a happy home life kill his family? Instead of simply suggesting that Grant is a sociopath, Archdeacon homes in on his addiction to cam models, and one in particular. As Grant grew increasingly obsessed with Silviya aka Silvie aka AdySweet, a Bulgarian cam girl, he became isolated and depressed, withdrawing from his family and eventually stealing $200,000 from them.

The collision of loneliness and the fantasies being sold online informed Archdeacon’s approach; as the director told Variety ahead of the series premiere:

I chose this story because I wanted to make a project that explores the way technology and loneliness are reshaping society. As we all spend more time online and less time in the physical presence of other people, a new culture is being born that I’m not sure any of us quite understand yet. ‘Ctrl+Alt+Desire’ is my attempt to bring these issues out into the open for audiences to examine them.

Ctrl+Alt+Desire’s hardly breaking new ground on this front. Just two months ago, Netflix’s Can I Tell You a Secret? tracked one of the most prolific cyberstalkers in the U.K. Though he didn’t escalate to murder, Matthew Hardy began menacing dozens of women online in 2009. Around the same time, Barbara Schroeder’s Talhotblond documentary examined an instance of catfishing leading to murder (and just three years later, Courteney Cox directed a Lifetime movie based on the events starring Garret Dillahunt as Thomas Montgomery). These documentaries reckon with the anxieties and fears that led to abusive behavior on Hardy’s part, and, in Montgomery’s case, tragedy. But the Netflix doc remains focused on the victims while simultaneously being conflicted about the attention being paid to Hardy, who began acting out as a teenager.

Archdeacon also told Variety that what he hopes viewers take away from his doc is “a sense of the dangers posed by over-investing in the digital world. Of course, Grant’s case is a terrifyingly extreme example of this, but I think his story nonetheless has lessons for everyone struggling to navigate our modern hyperconnected reality.” The proliferation of social media, the growing threat of A.I., and the realities of modern life no doubt heighten the “digital escape” element of Ctrl+Alt+Desire, but that alone isn’t enough to justify a three-hour runtime.

What’s ultimately most interesting about this documentary is its maker (much to the irritation of its narcissistic subject, probably). Archdeacon’s instincts are strong; he knows he may never really earn Grant’s trust, but sounding credulous is key to keeping him talking. The first-time director obtained tons of exclusive footage of Grant, but he also incorporates interviews with journalists who were in the courtroom as well as public defenders Jeff Dowdy and Jared Shapiro. He even teams up with a Bulgarian reporter to try to track down the elusive Silvie, who declined to participate.

After four years, Archdeacon seems to think he knows Grant — he may not believe in his innocence, but he knows the man. Which is why the director hardly sounds surprised when Grant gives up the ruse and admits he did murder his family, execution-style. Then Archdeacon does what any experienced documentary maker would: He asks Grant to tell him where he hid the gun — a missing piece of key evidence at his trial — that he used to kill his parents and brother.

When this trust exercise blows up in his face, Archdeacon sounds genuinely betrayed. "I just don't know what's real anymore,” he says, growing angry after wasting four hours — four years, really — on a wild goose chase. “Is he lying? Nobody knows what's real anyway." Archdeacon could have omitted some of these moments or tried to save face via voiceover narration. But he left them in, possibly as a lesson to other first-time documentary makers; occupational hazards and all that. Or perhaps Archdeacon, after spending so much time with someone so determinedly detached from it, chose to leave reality unaltered.

Ctrl+Alt+Desire is streaming on Paramount+.

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.