Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Hiding within this movie are four fairly interesting mini-documentaries about four men, each with a vision - perhaps even an obsession - about one particular facet of life. The common thread uniting them is that each of the four is fascinated by the ways in which animals, men, plants, and even machines evolve, learn, and grow. A recurring theme is training or control.

Unfortunately, these four interesting stories are chopped up and interwoven in ways that often seem arbitrary and pointless. Plus, about 25% of the movie is made up of clips from other, mostly bad, movies... and the soundtrack music is often intrusive and annoying. So I'm mystified why a number of critics thought this was the best documentary of 1997. Maybe there were just a lot of bad documentaries that year!

Worth watching if you have nothing else to do, but nowhere near great.

Encapsulated reviews are misleading. I had several times bypassed "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" on IFC for more lively sounding fare on movie channels. When I finally selected it as the least boring of an afternoon's TV movie offerings, I regretted not having picked it sooner and seen it more often.

This documentary delighted me! Interviews were enhanced by display of the works of four brilliant practitioners, fanatical about the unusual focus of their work or study. We are introduced to naked mole rats, robots as the next stage in evolution, wild animal training and a visionary handicrafter/topiary designer. Each professional provided unusual insights to their efforts and perhaps to our own natures as human beings.

The documentary seemed designed to hold even those with the even shortest of attention spans. Rather than engaging each subject in depth as a single segment, the interviews are presented in approximately one minute scenarios, often with a montage of old film footage relating connections and historical ideas about some of the subject matter. Just as a viewer's mind might start to drift during a segment, it collides with the next subject, often forcing mental connections that may not have come naturally.

After watching this one, I felt compelled to find and view the other productions of Errol Morris, and I shall keep an eye out for his future works. I believe that its audience should comprise anyone with a spark of interest in the world around them and the desire to be entertained. Whether you are fond of documentaries or not, I think this one will offer a pleasant and quickly passing ninety minutes.

Gene Romero gromero001@aol.com

Don't believe the folks who say this film is about the thin line between genius and madness. That may be part of it, but it's far from what's important here. The real loot here is FC&OOC's exploration of the "other", and our attempts to understand, shape and control it. Humans have a fascination with the nature of life and intelligence--whether it comes in the form of wild animals, plants in a garden or robots developing in a lab--and the ways we approach these things reveal as much about subject as object. This film does a beautiful job of highlighting the mystery inherent in living and/or intelligent things, evoking the awe we feel when we regard them, and the questions that arise when we attempt to study, cultivate, contain or "tame" them.

I saw this film and loved it, though it was hard to gain the proper sense of perspective, as I know Dave (the lion tamer). However, it's interesting to note that Errol Morris is not nearly so controlling or manipulative as some viewers seem to think. He doesn't have to stretch the subject matter to try and make connections... he just lightly played the characters, and they all start to sound the same after a point. Anecdotal evidence? The obssessive robot scientist, after the making of the film, apparently decided the end of the world was coming, and holed up in his laboratory building his robot army (this is of course a rumor, from the lion tamer). In any event, he wouldn't come to any photo shoots after the release, so the other three men posed with a cardboard cutout of him... check the art and you might be able to tell.

Somehow the Morris mix just doesn't jell this time. I'm normally a huge fan of Mr. Morris's films, especially the truly great Gates of Heaven. But Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is ironically aptly titled. Instead of providing some quirky insight into the human condition, the film only manages to annoy. And our four subjects? Well, they grate on the nerves to be honest. It's hard to say what's missing, maybe a sense of humor, maybe some more directorial involvement. In any event, I wouldn't go out of my way to catch this flick.