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Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

PG Released Oct 3, 1997 1h 20m Documentary List
91% Tomatometer 32 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
In this documentary by Errol Morris, four men with unique vocations are interviewed. There's Dave Hoover, a lion tamer; George Mendonça, a topiary gardener; Ray Mendez, a hairless mole rat expert; and Rodney Brooks, a robotics designer. Using a special camera called the Interrotron, each of these men is able to talk about his obsession seemingly directly to the audience, while Morris inter-cuts the interviews with stock footage and movie clips that are used to draw connections between them all.

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Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

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Critics Consensus

Made with a care and patience that belies its title, Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap & Out of Control combines the disparate sensibilities of four idiosyncratic subjects to present a fresh, cogent perspective on life.

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Critics Reviews

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Jason Bailey Vice 'Fast, Cheap' is about nothing less than our grand experiment - the struggle not only to be human, but to create order in a world bereft of it. Oct 7, 2017 Full Review Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: C Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Fast, Cheap & Out of Control doesn't fade from the mind the way so many assembly line thrillers do. Its images lodge in the memory. To paraphrase the old British beer ad, Errol Morris refreshes the parts the others do not reach. Rated: 4/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review M. Faust Common Sense Media Unusual documentary pointless but engrossing. Rated: 5/5 Jan 2, 2011 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Rated: 4/5 Oct 17, 2007 Full Review Jeffrey Overstreet Looking Closer Fast, Cheap & Out of Control convinced me that a documentary can be a poem. Rated: A+ Sep 19, 2007 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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S R 1001 movies to see before you die (1997, 2005). A bizarre movie to say the least. Morris' work is fascinating and informative, however I don't plan on seeing this again despite its unique narrative. Saw on tubi. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/30/24 Full Review Thomas M The best documentary movie ever made! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/25/22 Full Review William L Errol Morris has a distinctive and often effective editing style, minimizing the narration to the barest necessary context and supporting his interview subjects with interesting intercut imagery; at present, he has four films on the all-time 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, a major accomplishment. The difference between Fast, Cheap & Out of Control and some of those other films is that the former lacks a consistently compelling and unified subject, relying more on theme; it's a documentary of four initially unrelated individuals chronicling their passions (connected loosely around an animal theme), trying to rely on a combination of their eccentricities and particular enthusiasm for their area of study to carry the day, before stitching them together. Maybe it's the decades of network television post-2000 detailing subjects of such increasingly bizarre nature, like people that compulsively eat packing tape or whatever, that sort of takes the exotic nature away from a focus such as a lifelong lion tamer or hedge trimmer. While I was initially completely uninterested in the strange pastiche that Morris was creating, the film does develop with time, allowing its four subjects to demonstrate their understanding of their professions before gradually shifting to their slow realization of the fleeting nature of their work and existence (that doesn't take away from their value or intensity), but it's really a matter of personal preference whether this slow-burn, context-heavy thematic development is your particular cup of tea. There's nothing objectively bad about the film and it carries many of the Morris production flairs, but it doesn't bring the same weight that some of the director's more prominent works (particularly those that rely heavily on social interaction and injustices) do either. Seeing that the title didn't use the Oxford comma was a sour note to start the film. (3/5) Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/05/21 Full Review Audience Member My only problem with this movie was that it wasn't longer. I wanted to spend hours on end with these people. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Juxtaposing with the mise en scène of a circus, Errol Morris' idiosyncratic documentary captivates with intertwining intriguing interviews with a lion tamer, a hairless mole-rats expert, a topiarist and a robotics designer of bug-like robots on their idées fixes that have nothing and everything in common. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member When it comes to the documentaries of Errol Morris, they simply are so much more than just regular documentaries. My favourite is "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control." Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

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Movie Info

Synopsis In this documentary by Errol Morris, four men with unique vocations are interviewed. There's Dave Hoover, a lion tamer; George Mendonça, a topiary gardener; Ray Mendez, a hairless mole rat expert; and Rodney Brooks, a robotics designer. Using a special camera called the Interrotron, each of these men is able to talk about his obsession seemingly directly to the audience, while Morris inter-cuts the interviews with stock footage and movie clips that are used to draw connections between them all.
Director
Errol Morris
Producer
Errol Morris
Distributor
Columbia TriStar Home Video, Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co
American Playhouse
Rating
PG
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 3, 1997, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 20, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA)
$861.6K
Runtime
1h 20m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
35mm
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