Unlike Roger & Me, it is the presence rather than the absence of a company that is at issue. Since the 1960s, the Department of Energy has maintained a nuclear weapons plant just outside of Amarillo in the windswept Texas Panhandle. Throughout the cold war, the PanTex facility cranked out nuclear warheads. Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., however, the plant is now occupied full time with dismantling the very warheads it built.

While all those interviewed for this documentary have an opinion pro or con, few realize the ridiculously Sisyphean irony of the company's task. A supremely earnest city councilman and PanTex employee beams about the jobs provided to the area. A gaggle of hippies in a makeshift commune across the street from the plant sing folk songs and believe, just as earnestly, in their anti-nuke stance. Only the caretaker of the Cadillac Ranch, an ant-farm art project from the early '70s turned tourist attraction, has the appropriate sense of humor. He simply awaits the day when nuclear war occurs so that "there will be plenty of good freak shows again."

Since PanTex is run by the DOE and not by a private corporation, there seems to be little to debate, safetywise. Some complain about the presence of the plant in their town, but no one really voices any concern that the plant is patently hazardous. Ratliff has considerable more luck than Michael Moore with talking to the bigwigs behind it all. The plant, in fact, seems quite open about discussing its facilities and its work.

Ratliff interviews a cavernous cross-section of the town's population and, like Roger & Me, eventually settles into a bemused look at the quirks and kooks that make up small-town Americana. Plutonium Circus hits its greatest heights later on in the film when it begins contrasting the straight-laced city councilman and a kooked-out big game hunter, who, for some odd reason, calls Amarillo home. While the councilman sings Garth Brooks tunes at a local roadhouse, the hunter shows off his collection of mousetraps from around the world. While the councilman effuses about economic growth, the hunter digs out a shrunken head Christmas ornament.

Naturally, much of your reaction to Plutonium Circus will depend on the vehemence of your opinion about nuclear power. Ratliff fails to find any demons in this film, and it will be up to the viewer to provide them. Still, with its surprisingly crisp cinematography and its occasionally amusing parade of Texas citizenry, Plutonium Circus is well worth dropping in on.