Fast Food Nation

Reviews > DVD > Apr 2007

By Mike SauveFast Food Nation starts with some commercial-style burger flipping, a handful of story lines and at least the potential to be Dazed and Confused meets Thank You For Smoking.

There’s crap in the burgers. We’re supposed to be outraged that the meat is prepared under unhealthy conditions and that illegal immigrants make it. Then we’re supposed to laugh at Greg Kinnear being Greg Kinnear and a handful of poorly conceived characters blaming White Castle for all of society’s problems. Hope you hadn’t planned a nice theme night with a couple Bacon Triples from BK like I did.

Director Richard Linklater’s got the cache to cart out an impressive line-up of celeb bit players. Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson and Wilder Valderrama work well, others like Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke are jammed in. Even boring-ass Avril Lavigne is dragged out to mouth some annoying enviro angst. The real disappointment is that the fast food industry could use a swift cinematic kick in the ass. Supersize Me is about three years old now and not very cutting edge with your typical asshole college DVD activist.

Linklater, responsible for heavy philosophical efforts like Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, drops the ball with his tired "McDonalds is so bad man, you don’t even know” rhetoric. When angry teens blab anti-patriot act clichés, it’s hard to tell if Linklater is even in on the joke anymore.
(Fox)

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