Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.
Directed by Errol Morris
circus
lion
eccentric
robot
IMDB
N/A
Letterboxd
3.7 / 5
Where to Watch
Crew
Errol Morris
Director
Robert Richardson
Director of Photography
Errol Morris
Producer
Popular Reviews
7 reviews
Alfred HitchTOK
4.0★ · 11/06/22
In this doco from Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line) we explore the lives of four men from unique vocations - an animal trainer, a topiary gardner, a robotic scientist and a mole-rat expert.
While there is a level of charm listening to experts at the top of their game with such passion for their respective fields...it also comes across as a more than a little dull. It lacks that crucial element of 'insider baseball', that feeling (albeit superficial) that through watching we have now gained our own expertise.
Bob Richardson's cinematography elevates proceedings, putting to work his love of mixed formats (which where so effective in NBK and Kill Bill), providing stunning visuals of circus life in B&W and vivid colour, creepy little mole rats doing their thing in dark tunnels, early stage robotics that are clearly going to gain sentience, take over the world and kill us all and some absolutely beautiful night time imagery of a topiary garden blanketed in rain.
The title itself is a misnomer, evocating a sense of carny shucksterism which isn't really evident in our subjects - they are eccentric yes, but far from the rougish scoundrels that the title implies, and as such...far less interesting.
In this doco from Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line) we explore the lives of four men from unique vocations - an animal trainer, a topiary gardner, a robotic scientist and a mole-rat expert.
While there is a level of charm listening to experts at the top of their game with such passion for their respective fields...it also comes across as a more than a little dull. It lacks that crucial element of 'insider baseball', that feeling (albeit superficial) that through watching we have now gained our own expertise.
Bob Richardson's cinematography elevates proceedings, putting to work his love of mixed formats (which where so effective in NBK and Kill Bill), providing stunning visuals of circus life in B&W and vivid colour, creepy little mole rats doing their thing in dark tunnels, early stage robotics that are clearly going to gain sentience, take over the world and kill us all and some absolutely beautiful night time imagery of a topiary garden blanketed in rain.
The title itself is a misnomer, evocating a sense of carny shucksterism which isn't really evident in our subjects - they are eccentric yes, but far from the rougish scoundrels that the title implies, and as such...far less interesting.
