Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
This peculiar film documents the passions of four genius freaks: a lion trainer, a topiary scultor, a mole rat specialist, and a robot scientist.
Interspersed with interviews are tangentially related out-takes: an old b/w about a fat boy in a tarzan suit, robot research vids, and the odd cartoon. I'm not really sure how everything worked together. It is somewhat interesting that all of their obsessions were animal in nature: the gardener carved elephants and giraffes out of bushes; the mole rat guy adored the naked rodents for their insect-like behavior; the robotics dork wanted to build his own animals with machines; the lion trainer wanted to control wild animals with a whip and a chair.
But aside from this tertiary relationship, my interest was held only by the perplexity of the presentation. From the interviews themselves, I had a difficult time sensing the unusualness of their passion. Of the four freaks, only the roboticist and the mole man exuded pride in their work. And yet we didn't really get to see them AT work, aside from a couple clips of robot-man eating cake with the rest of the MIT geek squad.
On a more personal note, I didn't really like the lion trainer bit. Too many images of caged lions, muzzled bears, and elephants in chains. And don't get me started on the damn face-painting.
I give this film two stars: worth watching if you stumble upon it on PBS, but if youu're paying to rent a documentary, go with The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.
