Review of Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) by Eric F — 12 Feb 2009

When someone mentions that they've seen a film, the first question you ask is "what was it about?" I've come to notice that many of the best films defy brief summaries. What would you say if that question was posed to you about "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control", for example? It's a film about eccentrics? That's a bit broad. In the film, we're introduced to a group of four people and struggle to find how they're related beyond having unusual lines of work.

Dave Hoover is a lion tamer for the circus - a true expert who has watched friends fall to the ferocity of his beasts. He speaks of having to outsmart the lions who are at all times scheming how to attack him and escape. George Mendonca is a topiary gardener who works day-by-day carefully hand trimming hedges into giraffes, bears, and other animals. Ray Mendez is one of the premiere world specialists of the naked mole-rat (those are the things at the zoo with exterior teeth that live in a sort of ant farm). And lastly there's Rodney Brooks, a robot scientist.

The film is largely anecdotal and Errol Morris gives his subjects the floor to talk freely about their passions. The underlying theme Morris seems to be going for, however, is humanities need to control the environment. Each of the four is a stranger to their world - battling against plants, animals, and mechanics. But all of these men are trying to "conquer" something, with Mendez, for instance, playing God to his community of mole rats. It's also a film about legacy. Perhaps that's what distinguishes humans from the rest - our need to create and live on. A lion, on the other hand, has a one-track mind and is only distracted when you wave a chair in it's face. But beyond all of that, it's simply interesting to see just how diverse these "ordinary" people are. It's fascinating to see what draws similar people to such drastically different and fairly obscure practices.

Each subject had a charming story that were all uniquely different and interesting in their own ways. Hoover's segments are the most thrilling, with his tales of facing death in front of hundreds of fans. I'm a bit of a softy, so I was uncomfortable watching how the lions were treated - but still, there are not many spectacles more intense than a man holding a lion at bay with only a stick. I would have liked to see more of Mendonca, who comes off as an afterthought of the film. Perhaps the most compelling on screen presence was the ultra-geeky yet charming Ray Mendez, as he can't break the smile off his face while talking about the mole-rat's inability to sweat.

There's another film very much like this one from 2007 called "Protagonist". It, like this one, is available on NetFlix Instant View and deals with four eccentrics and a unifying theme. Both of these films go to show that documentary is a limitless yet overlooked medium. The respective directors of each film have created deeply absorbing works by showing parallels of seemingly randomly chosen subjects. "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control" is immensely entertaining and highly watchable. All NetFlix subscribers should check it out.