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| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| MPAA Rating | PG |
| Common Sense Media | Not reviewed |
| IMDB Parents Guide | None/Mild |
| Format | Documentary; English |
| Style | Intercut interviews with archival footage, film clips, and original cinematography |
Four men. Four obsessions. A lion tamer who has devoted his life to an art form that may die with him. A topiary gardener who sculpts living shrubs into animal shapes, knowing his creations will outlive him but require constant tending he won’t be there to provide. A scientist who studies the naked mole-rat—a bizarre, nearly blind, cold-blooded mammal that lives in colonies like insects. And a robot scientist who believes the future of robotics lies not in complex humanoid machines but in swarms of simple, disposable robots—”fast, cheap, and out of control.” Errol Morris weaves their stories together not through obvious connections but through visual and thematic rhymes: all four have given their lives to obsessions others find strange; all four confront mortality and legacy; all four have discovered that deep focus on one thing reveals truths about everything. The film never explains why these four belong together. It trusts viewers to feel the connections, to recognize something of themselves in men who followed curiosity wherever it led.
Content Breakdown: This is one of the gentlest documentaries ever made. Language contains no profanity whatsoever. Violence consists only of archival circus footage showing lion taming (mild by today’s standards—no animals are harmed on screen) and nature footage of mole-rats, including some scenes of mole-rat colonies and their unusual behaviors. No sexual content. No substance use. The only potentially challenging element is conceptual: the film’s unconventional structure—intercutting four unrelated subjects without explicit connections—may confuse viewers expecting traditional documentary format. This is a feature, not a bug, but it requires a different kind of attention. Some archival footage (old horror movies, circus disasters) is briefly shown but never dwelt upon. The overall tone is contemplative, affectionate, and gently philosophical.
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is a documentary about obsession that never uses the word. It profiles four men who have each surrendered decades to a single pursuit—lion taming, topiary gardening, mole-rat research, robot design—without ever asking the obvious question: “Why this? Why spend your one life on this?”
The omission is deliberate. Errol Morris understands that obsession doesn’t answer to “why.” These men didn’t choose their interests through careful cost-benefit analysis. Something captured their attention—a childhood circus visit, the strangeness of a plant that could be sculpted, the alien society of hairless rodents, the elegance of simple machines—and they followed it. For decades. Past the point where it made practical sense. Past the point where others understood. Into territories where they became the world’s foremost experts on things most people didn’t know existed.
The film argues implicitly that this is how mastery works. Not through balance, not through keeping options open, not through strategic career planning—but through surrender to fascination. Each man has paid costs for his focus: the lion tamer practices an art the world no longer values; the topiary gardener creates beauty that will die without him; the mole-rat scientist studies creatures most find repulsive; the robot scientist pursues ideas his field initially dismissed. None of them seems to regret the trade.
For children and adolescents facing pressure to be “well-rounded,” to keep options open, to avoid the risks of deep commitment, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control offers a different model: the focused life, the life given to one thing, the life that discovers depth instead of breadth. It doesn’t argue that everyone should become obsessive—but it demonstrates what becomes possible when someone does.
The unconventional structure: This is not a traditional documentary with one subject and a clear narrative. Morris intercuts four separate stories, sometimes in the middle of sentences, creating a visual and thematic tapestry rather than a linear argument. Prepare viewers: “This movie tells four different stories at once, mixing them together. It never explains why. Part of watching is figuring out what connects them.”
No explicit thesis: The film never states its message. It doesn’t tell you what to think about these men or their obsessions. This requires active interpretation. After viewing, resist providing “the answer”—instead ask: “What do you think the movie was about? Why do you think the director put these four people together?”
The pacing: At 80 minutes, the film is accessible, but its contemplative rhythm differs from conventional documentaries. There are no dramatic revelations, no conflict-resolution arcs, no villains. The pleasure is in observation, in noticing details, in feeling connections emerge. Some viewers find this meditative; others find it slow. Frame it as a different kind of watching.
The lion taming footage: Archival footage shows Dave Hoover and his idol Clyde Beatty working with lions in circus rings. By contemporary standards, the treatment of animals may raise questions. Use this as discussion: “How have attitudes toward animals in entertainment changed? How might future generations view things we consider acceptable today?”
The mole-rats: Naked mole-rats are objectively strange-looking—wrinkled, hairless, pink, with prominent teeth. Some children find them fascinating; others find them gross. Ray Mendez’s affection for them models seeing past initial reactions to find interest and even beauty in the unfamiliar.
The title: “Fast, cheap, and out of control” is Rodney Brooks’s phrase for his robotic philosophy—simple robots that can be mass-produced and don’t need central control. The title also suggests something about the men themselves: their lives have unfolded organically, following interest rather than plan, beyond conventional control. Discuss: What does “out of control” mean here? Is it positive or negative?
Morris is one of documentary cinema’s great stylists. This film offers opportunities to study his methods:
The Interrotron: Morris invented a device that allows interview subjects to look directly into the camera while making eye contact with the interviewer. This creates unusual intimacy—the subjects seem to speak directly to the viewer. Notice how this affects your feeling of connection with each man.
Associative editing: Morris cuts between subjects based on visual or thematic echoes, not logical argument. A lion’s mane might cut to a topiary bush; a robot’s movement might cut to a mole-rat’s. These connections are felt before they’re understood. After viewing, discuss: What cuts did you notice? What did the juxtaposition communicate?
Archival footage: Morris weaves in clips from old movies, circus films, educational footage, and other sources. Sometimes the connection to the subjects is clear; sometimes it’s mysterious. This creates a dreamlike texture. What purpose does this footage serve? How does it affect the mood?
Caleb Sampson’s score: The original music is haunting and circuslike, creating emotional continuity across disparate subjects. Listen for how music unifies the different stories.
Exercise: After viewing, try creating a short video or slideshow that intercuts two different subjects from your own life (hobbies, family members, places) based on visual or thematic connections rather than logical narrative. What emerges?
The focused life vs. the balanced life:
Contemporary culture often valorizes “balance”—being well-rounded, having diverse interests, not becoming “too focused” on any one thing. These four men represent the opposite: total commitment to a single pursuit over decades. Discussion questions:
Obsession vs. passion vs. interest:
These words describe different intensities of engagement. Try defining each:
Which word best describes each man in the film? Which describes your relationship to your interests? Is there a point where passion becomes obsession, and is that crossing good or bad?
Legacy and mortality:
Each man confronts the question: What happens to my life’s work after I die?
How does each man seem to feel about this? How does awareness of mortality shape how they work? What would you want to leave behind?
Finding your “mole-rat”:
Ray Mendez found beauty and fascination in creatures most people find repulsive. His story suggests that the most rewarding interests might be ones others overlook. Discussion:
Biology: Naked mole-rat colonial behavior, cold-bloodedness in mammals, eusociality Robotics/Engineering: Swarm robotics, simple vs. complex systems, biomimicry Art/Horticulture: Topiary as living sculpture, the relationship between art and time History: The circus tradition, changing attitudes toward animal performance Philosophy: Mortality, legacy, the meaning of a life devoted to one thing Film Studies: Documentary structure, associative editing, the Interrotron technique
Other Errol Morris documentaries:
Other documentaries about obsessive pursuits:
For discussing unconventional interests:
Recommendation: Suitable for ages 10+ as suggested, with no content concerns beyond the unconventional structure. The PG rating reflects genuinely mild content; the challenge is the film’s associative, non-linear form, which requires interpretive engagement rather than passive consumption. Best viewed with discussion afterward—the film’s meaning emerges through conversation, not through the film explaining itself. For students exploring where to focus their time and attention, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control offers four models of what happens when someone surrenders to fascination: lives that look strange from the outside but feel meaningful from within. The film doesn’t tell viewers what to be obsessed with—it demonstrates that being obsessed with something, whatever it is, opens depths unavailable to those who skim across the surface of everything. An invitation to depth disguised as a documentary about eccentric men.
