Fast Cheap & Out of Control

A film by Errol Morris

In this documentary, director Errol Morris weaves together stories of four men all with very interesting career paths: Dave Hoover is a professional wild animal trainer, George Mendonca is a topiary gardener, Rodney Brooks is a robot scientist, and Ray Mendez is a specialist in the behavior of the naked mole rat. I would say the film is a hybrid between expository and observational modes of documentary. Morris uses a great technic where the men being interviewed are looking straight into the camera. This makes the audience feel as though these men are talking to them.

Throughout the film you are trying to figure out what these four professionals have in common. In the beginning it seems as though they have absolutely nothing in common however, as the film progresses the parallels begin to emerge even though they are never actually stated within the film. In one-way or another all four men work with animals. Though Dave Hoover and Rodney Brooks don’t actually work with animals they work with things that replicate animal nature or literally in nature. Mendez and Brooks study how the interaction of individuals creates something larger than the whole. Hoover and Mendonca shape nature into unnatural ways for the enjoyment of others.

The documentary is shot in an unusual style, intercutting the interviews with b-roll of each man's profession, along with clips of old movie serials and shots of the circus. The interviews are not placed in a linear order. This allows the audience to see parallels. I don’t know if it was Morris’ goal but because of the intercutting, I begin to forget who was who because it was almost as if they the same person. Though they were talking about different things it sounded like they were talking about the same thing and in a way they were. In his own way each man reveals a little bit about life. They reveal this in either the subject of their obsessions, or in the way they pursue them. This I feel reflects on Morris himself.