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February 12, 2005
Fast Cheap & Out of Control
Fast Cheap & Out of Control (1997), Errol Morris:
Man, the poster for this makes it look so zany. I guess the premise sounds pretty zany, too, interviewing a lion tamer, a robotics guy, the premier naked mole rat expert and a topiary gardner all in one movie, using stock footage of old television shows and circuses to transition from one to the next.
It's not zany, though. Mr. Morris excellently weaves together the seemingly disparate narratives into a meditation on order from chaos, the rigors of discipline and (what Emily dubs, or at least quotes) "communing with The Other". You hardly notice the switch between who's speaking on what, despite the fact that lions look nothing like naked mole rats. The gardener seems out of place at times and I feel like the documentary would be a smidge tighter without him, but that's a very minor quibble for such a masterful piece.
14/15
Posted by bing at February 12, 2005 10:48 AM