Susan Granger’s review of “Fast Food Nation” (Fox Searchlight)
Based on Eric Schlosser’s investigative bestseller, this attempt to expose the distasteful American food industry, unfortunately, never reaches the heights – or depths – of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel “The Jungle” that shocked the nation 100 years ago.
Set in the Colorado town of Cody, all the characters are – in some way – connected with the fictional Mickey’s, a highly successful restaurant mega-chain famous for its gigantic hamburger called “The Big One.” There’s the genial but inquisitive corporate executive (Greg Kinnear) who is dispatched to Cody’s meat-packing plant to investigate meat contamination; the low-paid, undocumented Mexican slaughterhouse workers (Wilmer Valderrama, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ana Claudia Talancon) and their ‘coyote’ (Luis Guzman); the sexually-predatory plant supervisor (Bobby Cannavale); a longtime rancher (Kris Kristofferson); a pragmatic cattle buyer (Bruce Willis); the teenagers (Ashley Johnson, Paul Dano) who work behind the counter; and a young eco-terrorist (Lou Taylor Pucci).
Best known for his whimsical “Dazed and Confused,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “School of Rock,” cult filmmaker Richard Linklater, a confirmed vegetarian, utilized the title “Coyote” when he was filming undercover in Colorado, Texas and Mexico, evoking memories of Morgan Spurlock’s far-superior “Super Size Me.”
But the laid-back Linklater and co-scripter Schlosser are far too gentle, eschewing ‘agiprop,’ concentrating, instead, on realistic dialogue and a deliberately unhurried approach, never pushing the unpalatable, subversive narrative with the caustic tone that a Robert Altman-helmed ensemble might take. So with many meat-safety issues still undetected, the nutritional value in question and the rampant consumption of junk food making American adolescents obese, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fast Food Nation” is a timely, unappetizing 4 – illustrating the folly of unsavory consumption.
