Fast Food Nation (2006) User Reviews (173)

Not as nauseating as a Big Mac

[moutonbear25 · 7/10 · 19 November 2006]

FAST FOOD NATION Written by Eric Schlosser & Richard Linklater Directed by Richard Linklater

I've tried on a number of occasions to eliminate McDonald's from my diet. The first time I tried was a few years back, after reading Eric Schlosser's non-fiction work, FAST FOOD NATION. I remember going to buy fries for the last time before reading the chapter entitled, "Why the Fries Taste so Good." I had to go for that last fry before I could never look at them the same way again. I went for months without a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder with cheese but it didn't last. Eventually I succumbed to my cravings that persisted despite the time that had elapsed. I knew what I was doing was wrong but as I bit into my two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun, I conveniently forgot about all the chemicals in the meat, the subliminal advertising geared towards toddlers and the migrant, illegal workers in dangerous meat rendering factories that made my burger possible. No sooner had I had my last bite did my stomach twist into a tangled mess. The pain was both horrible and familiar. Unfortunately, Richard Linklater's narrative interpretation of Schlosser's novel is nowhere near as nauseating or as a big a turn-off as the feeling of a Big Mac sitting at the bottom of your stomach.

The decision to translate FAST FOOD NATION from a non-fiction work of in-depth investigative journalism into a narrative film is a bold one. I was apprehensive at first but Schlosser's involvement co-writing the screenplay with Linklater made me less so. Shaping facts into a story certainly humanizes the global implications of the fast food industry but if the narrative is not compelling then there isn't much of a point. FAST FOOD NATION tells different stories to show the wide reach of how many are affected by the fast food industry. Greg Kinnear plays Don Anderson, an advertising executive responsible for The Big One, the latest burger success at Mickey's, the fictional fast food chain at the center of the film. Don must investigate reports that there are significant traces of cow manure in the meat (Fun!). Ashley Johnson plays Amber, a teenage Mickey's employee who juggles school and work while she begins to see her role in the corporate machine that is waiting in her future. Wilmer Valderrama and Catalina Sandino Moreno play Raul and Sylvia, two Mexican illegal immigrants who have been brought into the United States specifically to work at the rendering plant that manufactures the millions of patties that become The Big One. Very little is revealed about the characters themselves as they are merely symbols for the bigger picture. Consequently, there is very little identification with the film. A film that is trying to tell everyone, "America … this is what you've become," needs the audience to feel like this is their America.

What FAST FOOD NATION best exemplifies is America's complacency with the progression of its society. The problems don't stop at Mickey's. The fast food industry is merely just one faceless industry that is driving the American people into hopeless futures. Kinnear's Don is a prime example. He has spent his life packaging products, feeding them to people the way they like it. All the while, he has also been feeding his convenient lies to himself as well. A successful burger comes at a cost and as he travels from his board room to the assembly line and begins speaking with people who don't have any stake in the production of The Big One, he understands that there are truths under his lies that he cannot go on ignoring. By the time we see him bite into his third burger, his apprehension to do so is rampant. Yet, he still takes that bite. This is what we do. We get fed a ton of information from different angles. The product pushers tell us how wonderful it is and the non-believers prove otherwise. Schlosser's book, which clearly details all the subtle atrocities the fast food industry unleashes into the fabric of America to make one more dollar at the expense of its loyal customers, is well researched and fact-checked. The flip side to the convenience of fast food, from obesity to the exploitation of underage employees, is being discussed by too many people and with increasing validity to be ignored. Yet millions still take that bite.

Linklater does not shy away from expressing his disappointment in the American people nor does he mince words about his lack of optimism relating to making change on the subject. Each character's story is brought to a close and none of them are any better for any of their efforts. Some end up exactly where they wanted not to. Some end up continuing to support the industry despite their newfound knowledge. All these choices are made to ensure money is still coming in, to ensure the American dream is still within reach. Even the youth of tomorrow fail at their attempts to affect the future. The attempt itself does show a trace of Linklater's hope, albeit it fleeting. Despite all this, Linkalter still wants to do his part. The last ten minutes of FAST FOOD NATION bring about some of the more gruesome footage found in the film. We finally get a tour of the "kill floor" at the rendering plant, with plenty of blood and dead cow to go around. The nausea comes too late in FAST FOOD NATION but you certainly won't be rushing for another burger any time soon.

Narrative film on the fast food culture in the United States

[swkidder · 7/10 · 17 October 2006]

This is a difficult film to watch if you are as tired as I am of being ashamed of this country. But maybe, as the film itself says, "The bad guys win until they don't." So go and see it.

It's well done, with an excellent cast, a reasonable script, cinematography that is occasionally better than you wish it were, and excellent editing. It's a complex film that sets out to tell a number of stories that it believes are inextricably entwined... and succeeds pretty well in doing that. It deals with a number of themes and threads ... social, political, and "human stories" ... and connects them all to a process we have collectively enabled ... the high jacking of the food we eat as well as the culture and economy that should nurture and sustain us ... and instead leave us fat and still hungry.

Warning to those who love animals, other humans, and may not be sufficiently desensitized to violence and gore .... you will never eat a hamburger again after seeing this film. You might even go on to question chicken. And you will lose any illusions you might have cherished in the past about the extent to which the industry that sells us this crap goes on to affect the lives of people across the Americas.

You may not enjoy watching Fast Food Nation, but you should make the effort to see it. And, you should make it a point to take at least one person you love that has been eating this kind of junk. You will have done your good deed for the day ...

a kind of head on collision of message and character, with the former winning over the latter

[Quinoa1984 · 6/10 · 19 November 2006]

There's a tendency in films of this nature, of the Fast Food Nation kind, where you already know going into it what the message is. It's not quite exactly as immediately black and white as it might seem (at first), but then after a while it becomes much more clear. While filmmaker Richard Linklater doesn't make very simple statements like 'fast food will make you fat', he does try to push the message that the sort of machinery of corporation is similar to that of the assembly line, is what is crippling to those entwined in the circle of cheap product made from dead meat. Which is fine; I'm not one of those that think precisely along the lines of Bertolucci, who was quoted as saying that he leaves messages for the post office and not for film. However, I do expect that if a filmmaker wants to put forward the message- and boy does Fast Food Nation do that more than anything- to make the characters &/or story lines interesting in the dramatic framework. He achieves this, but only up to a point. Narrative focus and dramatic drive only come through much more effectively within the last 45 minutes, while the first half seems startlingly dull, or at the least meandering.

That being said, I did find elements here and there throughout the weaker section of the film interesting. There's even a spellbinding aerial shot of the seemingly unending field of cattle, waiting for the slaughter. But for the most part early on we're treated to the sort of set-up of the main story lines: a group of Mexican illegals (one of them, Sylvia, played well by Catalina Moreno) get picked up by a guy in a van, and taken to a 'Mart' in town, and go to find work. Most of the illegals find it at a meat-packing/grinding/whatever plant, where what is seen by a quasi executive type, Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear), is not seeing everything he thinks he is when shown around the plant. He meets with a couple of people, one environmentally conscious and protective of his land from corporations (Kris Kristofferson), and another who is cynical and not too optimistic (Bruce Willis, who has one of the best scenes in the film albeit with a speech attached). Meanwhile, as he goes into a Mickey's (ho-ho) to get a 'Big One' burger from Amber (Ashley Johnson), Linklater and co-writer Eric Schlosser also follow her tale of nothingness of the small-town teenage girl.

All of these stories interconnect at times, or are left to themselves. While one is actually intriguing and ultimately very sad, which is the Mexican immigrants tale (that sense of tragic exploitation going on that ends up finding a place in the 'Nation' sense of the word), the other two either spurt to a halt after a while, or just kind of go on aimlessly until the last few scenes. The former of those with Kinnear doesn't give him that much to do aside from listening to people talk, and on the phone talking to his family. In a way he could've had his own film as a character, like with Wally Wiggins in Waking Life, but on its own Linklater leaves him be after the first hour, and then coming to a wrap-around in a predictably dour manner in the end credits. Amber's story, on the other hand, is sort of the opposite- she is just a small-town girl living in a lonely world (as the song goes), and sometimes listening to idiotic plots to rob the Mickey's by his co-workers, while here and there figuring out the future for herself.

What's both fascinating and frustrating about the film though could be seen sort of from Amber's storyline, where you see scenes that are convincing both in characters talking like real people (ala Ethan Hawke's moments), but also having not as much to do with the real 'message' going across that one might think- that is until Amber joins up with the young Animal-rights/ecological brigade and goes to cut a fence down to let the cows out. This actually had a real pathos to it, and was even entertaining (probably against Linklater's own intentions). But it's not just the writing or how Linklater connects the stories together. Acting wise it's hit or miss- Moreno is fantastic in a role that ends her up seeing the actual slaughtering of cows (which is staggering, whatever you think about serving meat in fast food). But the huge ensemble either gets their little moments well like Willis or Hawke, or either 'phones it in' like Kristofferson or just outright sucks like Lavigne. There's even a convincing one-note turn by the sleazy, pig manager of the assembly line job (I forget his name), but he too only get to have his character do what's required in the script.

As I walked out of the theater I realized that this wasn't at all a bad film, in fact it's a a pretty decent effort at dramatizing in small-town/big-ensemble fashion what it is to have the ugliness of consumer productivity. But that I also found it to be, of the films I've seen of his so far, my least favorite of Linklater's, which goes to show how strong a work he can still deliver when when not working at full throttle. And it's a little ironic considering how much of a success I found A Scanner Darkly to be, possibly coming closest to my favorite of his, and how both films take on a specific message to the audience, but one accomplishes it by basing it around characters and a really tightly-knit storyline and style that is consistently engaging, while the other is content to hop around from malaise to shock to whatever. Grade: B

There's sh*t in the meat.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 2 October 2007]

It doesn't matter that there was a boatload of stars in this film; it is the story that counts.

When i saw the dude spit on the hamburger, I know I was in for trouble.

It is sad to see how the exec sold out and just went along to protect his livelihood when he knew there was something wrong going on.

I lived nine years next to these CAFOs - Controlled Animal Feed Operations. The flies were so bad that you could not go out at night. This was in town! When those West Texas winds whipped across the prairies in the Summer, you knew that wasn't dirt getting in your mouth. 50 pounds of p*ss and sh*t a day from each cow. Where i lived, we fed one million cows a year - 25% of the beef sold in the country. That's a lot of sh*t! The conditions in the meat packing plants were true. We had them and they did have constant accidents due to pushing the lines. It is a shame that we have people risking their lives to get these kinds of jobs because it makes their lives so much better.

Bruce Willis says to just cook it and you'll be all right. I am not so sure anymore.

Rent the DVD and get the special features

[frederique-carre · 6/10 · 1 May 2007]

I read some of the comments made about this film. It does stay at a very superficial level and leaves the audience a bit "hungry" at the end (but not hungry for meat!). I would have wished for more insights - going deeper into the subject.

I saw some comments about the poor acting and I disagree. I think that all actors had a part and is was nice to bring some stars like Bruce Willis and Ethan Hawke.

I rent the DVD and I watched the special features which contain 3 episodes of "The Meatrix", starring Moopheus. The folks who created this cartoon delivered the same message as "Fast Food Nation" in less than 15 minutes - I learned as much and it was fun! I highly recommend.

Funny? Not!

[marshein · 6/10 · 10 September 2019]

I don't know how this film can be called a comedy. Nauseating yes. Tragic certainly. Funny not a bit.

A wasted opportunity: Fast Food Nation is about as satisfying as a happy meal.

[teh_mode · 5/10 · 1 November 2006]

Apparently, ever since Stephen Gaghan bored everyone senseless with his intertwining storytelling techniques for Syriana (2005), Richard Linklater's latest project, a political satire-drama about the fast food industry and its various potholes, adopts the same strategy to the same sort of effect in Fast Food Nation. Among the protagonists includes Greg Kinnear as Don Henderson, the newly acquired vice-president of fast food mogul "Mickey's". His job requires him to market a new type of burger – "The Big One" to the public. Elsewhere we get to meet a family of Mexicans, among them Wilmer Valderrama and Catalina Sandino Moreno, who venture into America illegally via the nasty, corrupt factory worker Mike (Cannavale), in order to fill his disgusting work stations. Mickey's employee Amber (Johnson) who grows tiresome of flipping burgers and pervy bosses – eventually decides to gather a revolt against the beef-slaughtering industry.

On paper – this could be the most cinematically violent satire one could hope for on the big screen. The fast food nation, for better or worse, is such an easy subject to tackle as the behemoth of an industry's only true worth is to fatten the western world into a huge wave of immovable mammoths. The operation of it is even worse, as KFC's documented treatment of its fowl is appalling, as is McDonald's lack of nutritional awareness. So much bag to swing at, surely an accomplished director such as Richard Linklater couldn't possibly avoid hitting something? Suffice to say Fast Food Nation is absolutely punch-less. It relays common truths to support its depiction, which completely washed over me. There is artificial flavourings in these foods? Apparently immigrants are put to work illegally and unsafe in factories, you say? No kidding. Tell me something new. Shock me. The devouring and slaughter of a cow isn't a plea to boycott fast food – it is vegetarian propaganda. Yes it is nasty viewing, but no more so than the limb-removal in Saw (2004) or the teeth extraction in Park Chan Wook's Oldboy (2003). I knew animals die in the process of food making – it is common knowledge. Vegetarian propaganda belongs in a film like Madagascar (2005) or Finding Nemo (2003) where children ponder the humane nature of eating meat, whilst realising that nature itself is fairly ruthless when it comes to hunger. The fact that the biggest indignation proposed unto the industry by this film is of the amount of animal feces going "undetected" in their products is certainly disconcerting, but underlines the weakness to truly devour this subject. It is edited, directed and written in such a pedestrian manner, that not only is there a lack of insight, there is none of the brio or genuine intrigue that Morgan Spurlock's superbly insightful, and utterly entertaining documentary Super Size Me (2004) garnered. Spurlock uncovered a plethora of grotesque truths about fast food that not only made you think about that kind of diet, but also offered a compelling cinematic experience.

It is after witnessing a film as disappointing as Fast Food Nation, that one appreciates a work like Thank You For Smoking (2006) all the more. Linklater has made a movie not just lacking punch, but spark too. Jason Reitman's film about tobacco lobbyists was a movie with similarly hackneyed message: think for yourself. It preached to its own choir much in the same vein is Linklater is doing here; only with verve, and a sense of humour, that more than made it worth the emission. Fast Food Nation is desperately lacking a humorous edge. There is none of that biting satire from Wag The Dog (1997), none of the cutthroat cynicism of Wall Street (1987) or the fluidity in Linklater's previous release this year A Scanner Darkly (2006). It even lacks the intelligence of Syriana (2005), which was not a particularly accomplished film. Instead what we have is an admittedly well-intentioned film, which lacks the wit, insight and storytelling to make this a worthwhile experience.

A healthy dose of much needed reality

[sviau81 · 9/10 · 25 September 2006]

This movie is a fast food chain's worst nightmare. The trans fats, chemicals and artificial flavors these corporations pump into their so-called "food" has been slowly killing a generation of children for long enough, and finally someone's come out with a film revealing the inner workings of this dishonest and dangerous industry. The imagery is compelling, with a convincing and talented cast. This is the payback fast food corporations have needed for a long time coming. Hopefully many will see this movie and walk away better educated in order to live a longer, happier, and most importantly, healthier life. Watch out for fast food industry propagandists posing as film critics in order to discredit this film, their future and income very well depends on the ignorance of the general population. (Cigarette corporations anyone?)

Special Features Make It Worth Watching

[alexraksin · 7/10 · 22 February 2007]

One oft-cited drawback to "Fast Food Nation" is that the film doesn't focus sharply enough on pragmatic steps that Americans can take to eat more healthfully and support sustainable agriculture. But the March 6 DVD includes an antidote in its "special feature" section: the entire series of the critically astute "Meatrix" videos. Though the "Meatrix" is well-known by ardent Web surfers (deemed "the hottest online hit" by Salon.Com, for example), its loose satires on "The Matrix" movies haven't been released offline until now. Its animated characters illuminate the same sort of bleak realities that Upton Sinclair did in "The Jungle," but they have something that most such exposes don't: witty humor. In one episode, for instance, Leo, the young pig who wonders if he is "the one," helps rescue "Moopheus," a trench-coat-clad cow who comes inches away from slaughterhouse knives. The "Meatrix" videos also direct viewers to a website, www.meatrix.com, which offers links to sites like www.sustainabletable.org that outline practical steps people can take to eat more healthfully and support more humane and environmentally friendly agriculture. Viewers might find such advice useful, because various studies—including one conducted by A.C. Nielsen in late 2006—have reported that while Americans increasingly recognize the moral and nutritional problems inherent in any fast food nation, they nevertheless feel powerless to address those problems in daily life.

A wasted opportunity-very disappointing

[goldbe · 5/10 · 19 July 2006]

I had the chance to see this film at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Of all the films I saw, this one was the most disappointing, and the most shockingly mediocre. The film jumps around between a few different, barely interconnected stories, yet none of these segments are explored enough to draw the audience in. For example, towards the end of the film, I began to realize that Greg Kinnear had completely disappeared from the movie without a trace. He is not again seen until the ending credits. The film seems to pride itself on continually throwing in more and more familiar faces, yet these actors prove to be more of a distraction than anything else. Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Avril Lavigne, Bruce Willis, and others all pop up for a brief scene or two, yet for the most part, they fail to leave any lasting impression. At the films end, I left the theater feeling no more enlightened, no more informed, and no more interested in the topics discussed throughout the movie. Richard Linklater is a great director, and he has cast some great actors, but still, Fast Food Nation fails to compel or leave any sort of impact. My guess is that a year from now, most people will have forgotten about this movie entirely.

The point of the film is that these issues ARE intertwined.

[distraido · 9/10 · 16 November 2006]

It's fascinating (and a bit frightening) that, of the people I've heard criticizing this film for not being "moving" enough, none seem to consider the possibility that this could be due to their own cynicism, jadedness, or other similar accumulations of scar tissue. Which are, of course, the very attitudes that allow the abuses depicted in the film to occur in the first place. Some say that Fast Food Nation takes on too many issues, but really it's about one thing: America. It asks us to look at how millions of us live and at the by-products of our living like this. Schlosser and Linklater, by presenting together the issues of fair wages, health, family, drug abuse, etc., give us the BIG picture. We can then have a close look, those of us who dare, at the details, reflect, and get to know our own feelings about it all.

You'd have to be a hardcore-serious skeptic not to revel in the sarcastic wisdom of the old rancher played brilliantly by Kris Kristofferson. Likewise, the family portrayed by Patricia Arquette, Ashley Johnson, and Ethan Hawke feels so genuine and loving, that anyone with a pulse ought to be attracted to the unspoken promise of their humility. All three of those actors give nuanced, subtle-yet-powerful performances. Luis Guzman's bit part is not meant to threaten or scare. It's humor in sleazy, but fairly harmless, smuggler's clothing. Worth mentioning is the palpably real character of "Mike", the meat packing plant supervisor played by Bobby Cannavale. His is yet another fine performance in an important, well-crafted, and thoroughly enjoyable movie.

Cattle of Cows and People and Industry of Food

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 29 June 2008]

In California, the VP of Marketing of the Mickey's Fast Food Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear) is responsible for the hamburger "Big One", the number one in selling in Mickey's chain of fast food restaurants. When an independent research in the meat patties produced in Cody, Colorado, indicates the presence of cow manure, Don is sent to the facility to investigate possible irregularities in the meatpacking production plant and also the major supplier of cattle. Along his surveys, Don finds the truth about the process and how meat is contaminated. Meanwhile, a group of illegal Mexican immigrants arrive in Cody to work in the dirty jobs in the plant while a group of activists plot how to expose the terrible situation of the Mickey's industry.

"Fast Food Nation" has a promising beginning, giving an expectation of a strong message against the fast food industry and the exploitation of illegal immigrants in USA. Unfortunately in a certain moment the story becomes a shallow drama, losing the focus on the cattle of cows, people treated like cattle and the process of manufacturing industrialized meat, never going deeper in these issues. In this regard, "Super Size Me" is much more effective, showing the effects of fast food in the human body. I believe this theme would be tailored for Michael Moore, and I did not like this work of Richard Linklater. There are many pointless cameo appearances of famous actors, like for example the characters of Ethan Hawke or Bruce Willis, maybe to show how popular this director is in Hollywood. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Nação Fast Food" ("Fast Food Nation")

It's not just in the beef... it's in this movie.

[euvertrue · 2/10 · 13 October 2006]

Fast Food Nation was a great book, and as a piece of nonfiction, it is still one of the best pieces of long-form journalism of the decade. But Eric Schlosser and Richard Linklater's fictionalized take on the same topic isn't deserving of the original book's name.

First, the film tries far too hard to do far too much at once. Is it a cautionary tale about eating beef? Cattle farming? Illegal immigration? Paying workers too little? Crystal meth? Optimism? Any one of these (or even two) would have been enough fodder for a 2-hour film, but tackling them all in one movie is a blunder. A very Big One. No topic is explored enough, and in the process, they all suffer.

Second, the casting is hit-or-miss. Wilmer Valderrama is surprisingly good, as are Greg Kinnear and Ashely Johnson. As expected, Catalina Sandino Moreno runs away with the film, when she's on camera, which is not very much. But Avril Lavigne is laugh-out-loud terrible, as is the comically unscary Luis Guzman.

Third, the grossout factor. There are graphic and bloody scenes of animal death and dismemberment in the movie, but to what end? They're stuck in with no discussion or reflection on them, and because of this, they seem simply gratuitous, not moving or instructive. And really, that's the story of the entire film.

Fast Food in a Faster Nation.

[IRateFilms · 7/10 · 28 November 2006]

Director Richard Linklater has released another gem to add to the list of films that have made him the eclectic filmmaker he is today. Fast Food Nation, which accompanied Linklater's other film this year( A Scanner Darkly ) at the Cannes Film Festival is a very dialog driven film geared towards a realization or self-awareness geared primarily towards the American population. Also, a warning towards less westernized communities, Fast Food Nation puts the reality of modernization and personality loss into a very potent formula on-screen. The film centers on a large corporation that delivers fast-food quality at a fast-food price across the country. To mirror companies such as McDonalds, Wendy's, or Taco Bell, was the point of Fast Food Nation, and it does more as a film than Super Size Me did as a documentary.

Linklater has a very diverse palette to take from, much like Steven Soderbergh, whereas they can both do intellectual independent films, and then turn around and still make an enjoyable film with a higher budget. Linklater followed up his more mainstream films School of Rock and Bad News Bears, with this thought provoking , eye opening docudrama. As the film tries to open our eyes and ears to the screaming of today's youth it also speaks loudly about immigration, and the border patrol at the U.S. - Mexico border. This seems to be a trend this year, after the issue was covered in Babel, and in The Three Burials of Melquiadas Estrada.

It's frightening to see the chemicals the fast food companies pour into their foods, and the hormones and literal waste the meat packaging companies use and overlook while feeding the public. There are many gruesome scenes towards the end of the film, that might seem unnecessary to some, but are a clear message that needs to be told and seen. Fast Food Nation is a satirical, yet overtly realistic look at the capitalistic society we live in today. This bleak look at middle-America does shed some hope that there will be a better youth, and that through revolution something optimal will erupt. There are many gruesome scenes towards the end of the film, that might seem unnecessary to some, but are a clear message that needs to be told and seen. Fast Food Nation is a satirical, yet overtly realistic look at the capitalistic society we live in today. This bleak look at middle-America does shed some hope that there will be a better youth, and that through revolution something optimal will erupt.

scattered and a little preachy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 11 January 2016]

Fast food chain Mickey's Burger has a hit in the Big One. Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear) is a marketing VP in development in their California headquarters. Independent research has found extremely high fecal count in their frozen patties and Don is sent to the Colorado meat-packer to investigate. Old-timer Rudy Martin (Kris Kristofferson) tells him about the hard truths. Harry Rydell (Bruce Willis) is their corrupt meat buyer. Amber (Ashley Johnson) and Brian (Paul Dano) work at the local Mickey's. Amber lives with her single mom Cindy (Patricia Arquette) and they're visited by activist uncle Pete (Ethan Hawke). Meanwhile illegals like Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), Coco (Ana Claudia Talancón), and Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) sneak into the US to become part of low wage workforce being exploited. Supervisor Mike (Bobby Cannavale) abuses his position by hooking up with Coco. Her sister Sylvia is not happy with the relationship and her drug use.

Director Richard Linklater is adapting the scathing investigative book on the fast food industry by layering three stories on top of the material. It leaves the movie scattered, a bit flat, and too preachy to have much compelling shock factor. Linklater is caught trying to make drama while doing a documentary. I do find two of the three stories to be pretty interesting. I don't like Kinnear's character's awkward naivety. He's in the meat business but has to act dumb. Willis may as well twirl his evil mustache. There is a tale of corporate political corruption but it fails to dramatize it. Ashley Johnson is an interesting lead but her side of the story pales in comparison to the illegals working in the plant. I think that is where the movie shines and it also has the horrifying slaughter room walk-through. The movie would have been more compelling concentrating on that story.

Almost a Vegetarian.

[isabelle1955 · 18 February 2008]

It wouldn't take much to turn me into a vegetarian. I watched this movie on TV the night before the announcement of the largest meat recall in US history, and I'm beginning to wonder if the fates aren't trying to tell me something? Poor hygiene, worker exploitation and animal abuse, were all laid out here on film, and then on the broadcast news next morning. Hmmm.

But while the message of this film is thought provoking and needed, the movie itself is a little disappointing. (And no, I haven't read the book, although I know I should.) It views like too much of a political tract and too little like a good drama. That may make it very worthy but it immediately limits who will bother watching it, and I suspect that mostly Fast Food Nation is preaching to the converted. The goodies are all too good. The baddies are all too bad. It could have done with more nuance, life is rarely quite so black and white. Famous names pop up from time to time, (Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne etc), no doubt getting some 'right-on' credibility for doing their bit for the cause at minimum wage, but it would have worked better with a cast of unknowns. It's distracting to see a political movie degenerate into an "Oh look there's….." movie.

This is very much an ensemble piece, following the lives of a group of illegal immigrants from Mexico who go to work in and around a slaughter house and meat packing plant in Colorado. Alongside the migrants we see the school kids who work the local fast food joint where much of the meat ends up in cheap burgers, the promotions man from fast food HQ in New York who is sent to investigate an outbreak of e coli sourced to the plant, and a particularly nasty plant supervisor who extracts sex from the women as the price of earning a living wage.

Everyone is just trying to do their job and earn a living of course, but in doing so they inadvertently manage to create an unsafe, exploitative and abusive system both for the people who work in it and the poor dumb animals who get eaten. The female nudity (and nudity of either gender in film is not something I normally have a problem with) was maybe a bit gratuitous in this case. It added little to the story line. We know the slimy supervisor sleeps with the women. We didn't need to see their breasts to believe it. Alongside the images of the skinned cattle, it seemed heavy handed.

What the film perhaps doesn't emphasise enough, in my opinion, is that this is all being done to produce cheap food, which is, unfortunately what much of the country wants. Ask people if they want humanely produced meat and of course they will say yes. Ask them if they will pay extra for it, and again most will say yes. Then follow them around a supermarket, and watch how many actually put their money where their mouth is. Fast Food nation is a good idea inadequately realized on screen.

Feedlot Philosophy

[gbuttkus · 7/10 · 10 December 2006]

Director Richard Linklater gives us three groups of characters –the corporate clones,the cattlemen and the meat packers, with some angst-ridden adolescents thrown into the loosely-linked ensemble piece. But when those end credits roll, one felt as if they had consumed a ton of carbohydrates,and skipped the essential protein. Perhaps it was too ambitious of an endeavor with too much to tell, to expose, to pound home, to illuminate –rapid images racing past us like the subliminal imagery used to train assassins in Alan J. Pakula's THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974), like those fevered images shooting through Rod Steiger's mind in Sidney Lumet's THE PAWNBROKER (1964). What Linklater missed out on was the poignant Hispanic drama illustrated in John Sayles' LONE STAR (1996), or perhaps the acerbic cutting wit found in Jason Reitman's THANK YOU FOR SMOKING(2005), or even the loopy satire found in Michael Spurlock's SUPER SIZE ME (2004).

By in large the acting was very good. Greg Kinnear created the corporate brain stormer, Don Anderson, who had the thankless job of traveling to Cody, Colorado to "investigate" the goings on at the primary meat packing plant where his company, MICKEY'S, procured their entire hamburger product; to look into the serious allegations that too much fecal matter was getting into their meat. The problem was no one clued Don into the fact that such forays are supposed to be titular, not actual. He was supposed to take the carefully modulated "tour" of the facility and come home with a clean report exonerating the management, and extolling the virtues of their pristine plant. Instead he actually started talking to folks, and the "truth" he began to hear, and the reality of the situation weighed heavily on him. But caught in the middle, he soon realized that an accurate report on the situation would cost him his job, and possibly his livelihood. So he backed off, and it was implied he "white-washed" the whole affair. Kinnear was good in the part, but he did not bring more to it than he needed. His minimalist lackluster style worked for the character, but we have seen it from him so often before –with the two exceptions of the gay character he played in GOOD AS IT GETS (1997), and when he played Bob Crane in Paul Schrader's AUTO FOCUS (2002).

Kinnear shared scenes with Kris Kristofferson, as a straight-talking wealthy cattle rancher, and Bruce Willis as a blue-collared corporate middle man. These big name cameos allowed some of Linklater's political rhetoric to be espoused. Kristofferson underplayed his plain-folks cattleman wonderfully. Willis sat there munching a burger and swilling a beer, in a quietly menacing fearsome manner. As a 30-year veteran in the "meat business", Willis gleefully drove the corporate hard-line wooden stake right into the middle of Kinnear's chest. One immediately felt that Willis was capable of anything, from intrigue to violence, to discourage any further investigation on Kinnear's part. Kinnear backed off quickly, feeling vulnerable, paranoid, and respectful of his "corporate leash".

Plot thread II dealt with a group of immigrant Mexicans that had been smuggled over the border, then up through New Mexico to Colorado. Wilmer Valderrama (THAT 70'S SHOW), and the lovely Catalina Sandino Moreno, MARIA: FULL OF GRACE (2004), played the two primary characters in the Hispanic group. How these vulnerable, needy newcomers were manipulated first by the border coyotes, like Luis Guzman, and then the gringo "Bosses", like the sexist mean-spirited meat packing foreman, Bobby Cannavale (whose performance was so convincing I would have been willing to go to Cody and look for this bastard with a baseball bat), became the primary grist of the second half of the film.

But like a rich meringue topping, a third plot thread was woven into the mosaic –the younger generation. This group was spearheaded by the perky Ashley Johnson as Amber, an intelligent teen who dreamed of escaping the confines of Cody, but in the meantime was stuck behind the counter at Mickey's. She lived with a single mother, Patricia Arquette, who had settled into the mid-life malaise of that place, who dated lots of men, drank too much, and didn't give her daughter much to aspire to. Only her wayward uncle, played by Ethan Hawke in another of those several brief cameos, reinforced her resolve, and helped her to see beyond the rut she inhabited; enabling her to shift from servitude to some form of activism. Avrial Lavigne, the singer, was a bit unimpressive as a blond cu-tie in the activist's cell. Paul Dano, from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006), played the part of an arrogant, obnoxious, and petulant punk very effectively. An eon ago, when I too was on the management team of two separate fast food giants, employees like him were prevalent. I, to some extent, empathized with the Mickey's manager, Esai Morales.

The last part of the film was the most graphic, as we were walked behind the facade into the area of the slaughter chutes and the killing rooms, cattle being shot in the heads with stun guns, the steaming gut tables, and the cutting of cattle's throats to a pounding Southwest beat –with thick bovine blood gushing into ankle-deep rivulets, and with blood gorged rats scurrying out from within and beneath the machines. FAST FOOD NATION was a work of conscience –obviously not a "commercial venture". It will be seen by the smaller audiences in the art houses. It will probably not be seen much out in the mall mega-theaters. I would rate this film at 4 stars, primarily for its earnest attempt to tackle important issues, and along the way providing us with some above average entertainment.

Glenn Buttkus 2006

Terrible propaganda without a point

[christine-jenson · 1/10 · 16 November 2006]

While we all know that the Fast Food industry has its downfalls, this movie strays away from the main point it should be trying to make. It goes on a tangent about illegal immigration which is totally irrelevant and the gruesome scenes at the end make the movie seem like vegan propaganda rather than information people should know to make wise decisions about their health. The acting was OK (except for Avril lavigne, what were they thinking!) but there was no solution and no point to the movie. The slaughter scene crossed the line. I think that killing any animal is sad and difficult to watch, but I eat meat, and respect animals for the nutrition they provide. I think the movie skewed scenes such as the slaughter to incite a strong reaction. It was a poorly made movie and a waste of my time and lunch!

An Optimistic In A Bleak World

[MannyVarjak · 9/10 · 15 November 2006]

I really like Richard Linklater, the director of Fast Food Nation, because no matter what pop culture, market research, or his distributors tell him he continues to make movies where people talk. I don't mean talk as in "Hasta la vista, baby," or some other cliché-ridden "isn't that clever" marketing jargon, but TALK, as in conversations; the kind that were common place before TV, the Internet, and X-Boxes.

In Fast Food Nation, the film's message is mainly delivered through words. Sure, there's sex, and violence, and even a special effect, but for Linklater's film to be truly affecting it requires the audience to listen. And if they do, they will be rewarded. It's a gamble that I hope will pay off because it's a story that we need to hear. And within his story is an underlying hope--or perhaps just blind faith--that an audience will watch a film about real people dealing with real issues.

There are no true good guys or bad guys in the film. In an interview with my friend, Denis Faye he says, "It's like, hey, everyone's doing their best in this world, you know?"

His characters, like all of us, are all flawed. The good aren't all good, nor the bad all bad, which is something mainstream movie goers, particularly in the USA, seem to have a problem with. Maybe it's because we don't watch movies to watch people in conflict because we get enough of that in our own life.

But to me, at least, this is a great statement of optimism and belief in our society; that we will, when given the choice, choose to listen, think, and make our own decisions. Even in a film that shows life to be pretty bleak, it's a very optimistic view of the world.

Who are these two actors?

[amd_hall · 7/10 · 19 November 2006]

Who are these actors? I have never seen these actor's and thought that they were both particularly strong:

1. The manager of the Mickey's restaurant.

2. The tall man from of the meat plant in the scene at the hospital with the translator when they say that Raul was on drugs during the accident.

Also how good was Bruce Willis? He really hit it out of the park. Him and Kinnear had a really nice scene. It was nice to let those two guys go and not cut out of the scene too early. Really strong, everyone was good, I question the casting of Avril Lavene, do we really need to see how bad she can be? Stick to the bad pop songs and stay out of the movies Avril!

What a bad movie

[sdesh03 · 3/10 · 20 September 2009]

Another reviewer said that the makers of this movie have lost a valuable opportunity. I completely agree with that opinion. This film is a disaster. The movie touches on important subjects in today's society (exploitation of Mexican immigrants, abusive US corporate power, the brutality of the meat industry, grass-root activism etc) but unfortunately it presents them in a shallow and dull way. The dialogues go nowhere and the events unfold with little sense of direction. The film doesn't even provide basic facts or data on the issues mentioned above. It's fiction that just doesn't bite. If you haven't seen this movie, I strongly suggest to avoid wasting 2 hours of your life on it. If you want to learn the facts of the fast food industry, you won't find any here.

Mournful but true and compelling

[davenj · 9/10 · 3 November 2006]

I saw this last night at a screening. Watching it was an interesting process. I went from finding it a little didactic (and comparing the border crossing scenes with the similar scenes in Ken Loach's "Bread and Roses") to slowly finding myself overwhelmed by the sheer sadness of it all.

I think there are some easy jokes and moments early on that seem unnecessary -- a kid spitting in a burger; an executive saying "there's sh*t in the meat" to explain the issue to any dummies who might be in the audience -- but as the film unfolds, all the characters get time to develop and unfold.

And as they do, I found myself feeling terrified for all of them. These are lives that don't make it to the screen often, except perhaps in Ken Loach movies. But what makes this film special is that Linklater is no Ken Loach. He doesn't artificially ramp up the drama of small lives. They have enough drama already.

One of my favorite details in the movie was the sound of Amber's car as she drives off to school. It sounds dangerously close to breaking down, and we know from watching her home life and work schedule what that will mean for her. "Fast Food Nation" is full of details like this.

Overall, the film allows the viewer to invest in all the characters at an unhurried pace. Which is what's truly compelling about it. The political message, while important, isn't what makes this cinema. If anything, it is the weaker aspect of the film. But the human stories are so strong, that it doesn't matter. At least to me. I just found myself very moved by this. Which is what I'm looking for in any film.

A Nutshell Review: Fast Food Nation

[DICK STEEL · 7/10 · 30 December 2006]

At first glance, my impression of Fast Food Nation is that it'll take a more documentary approach in highlighting issues about the fast food industry. It did look like it had room for satire with a provocative style, but should you be expecting something along the lines of Super Size Me, then this is the wrong movie for you.

For starters, it's got an appeal like Thank You For Smoking, but its narrative choice of attaching characters to mouthpiece different issues, seemed to make the movie feel very scattered in its presentation of ideas. While this approach had its merits, giving different ideas appropriate focus and dedicated screen time, it didn't make a very compelling, thorough argument as a whole. Something along the lines of having too many cooks spoiling the broth, and it really kept the best for the last, building an anticipation which got glossed over too quickly.

Fast Food Nation contains an excellent ensemble cast assembled, and characters ranged from illegal immigrants crossing over the US border from Mexico, to cattle ranchers, food processing plant workers, fast food outlet workers, and all the way up to the corporate boardroom of a fictional fast food chain. The entire supply chain of the fast food industry gets addressed, and every perceived skeleton from the closet gets its fair share of air time. You have doctored reports, tales from the production floor, sexual favours, poor work conditions and lack of benefits, and tons of lies.

Richard Linklater movies have dialogue which rock, and there is no lack of those in Fast Food Nation. In particular, pay attention during the scene with Bruce Willis (yes) and Greg Kinnear. It meanders around, trying to reason, before coming down like a sledgehammer. That conversation itself is a worth the price of an admission ticket, seriously.

The book (I managed to scan through it) probably packed a lot more theories and figures which should make it a compelling read, but the movie, whose screenplay is also co-written by the author Eric Schlosser, in having to adopt a different approach to present those ideas, somehow diluted some of them. But the movie should make you want to pick up the book for more.

And yes, I'm swearing off burgers and fast food for a while.

Just Garbage.

[cows_are_great · 1/10 · 18 December 2006]

Moral of the story: Junk food and fast food are EVIL. This is new. No one has ever done this moral before. Ever. I just didn't see that one coming, that message just punched me right in the face, especially with tag-lines as clever and catchy as "Would you like lies with that" (GET IT? INSTEAD OF FRIES?! HAHAHA! Hilarity. And yet clever and subtle and just smart. Or...), or "The truth is hard to swallow" (That's a clear warning sign that you're in for a festival of condescending know-it-all messages, when they declare their own message a truth or a revelation of some sort... how cocky and pretentious, eh?).

As far as the movie goes from a purely political or moral perspective, it's crap. First of all, it isn't controversial at all, despite the fact that they insist on trying to make it seem as if it is. It was controversial 30 years ago. Stop acting like this is some spark to a revolution or something, for Christ's sake. There isn't really anything you didn't know if you watched SuperSize Me and read the book and have just in general not been locked in a closet for the last 20 years without a TV. The messages are old, stale and uninteresting. And because it's a work of fiction, anything bad that could happen, does happen, and then it gets the balls sensationalized out of it. To use this movie as a piece of education would be like using Terminator to ban research on robotics and AI. So, weak and stale points, sensationalized arguments and an arrogant and condescending tone. Oh, you thought this was why I declared this movie garbage?

The story... whoa Nelly... the story. Poor Mexican border crossers get treated badly and butchered, elite corporate guy sells crap to people and doesn't care because he's a corporate guy and that's what corporate guys do, because corporate = evil, and the teenager feels rebellious. The acting is good, but it can only mask the absolute shoddiness of the story to a certain degree. Characters are all on sided, the story is so obviously politically motivated and without emotion, and the characters barely, if at all, tie in to each other. It's just bad.

The only reason anyone is giving this movie a good review is because they agreed with the moral before they even saw it. They liked that it smashed at fast food just as much as they liked to smash at it. Morally inclined bias to the actual review of the movie. That's all it is.

This movie is indeed just plain fart smelly garbage.

Interesting but really fails to come together and it is hard not to see it as a bit chunk of missed potential

[bob the moo · 4 March 2008]

Don Anderson is head of marketing for fast food chain Mickey's who is currently residing over strong sales of flagship product The Big One. When word gets out that a college project has identified high levels of faecal material within a frozen burger, Anderson gets on it to get to the bottom of it and prepare to deal if anything kicks off in the media. Meanwhile sisters Sylvia and Coco smuggle themselves across the border with a party of others, heading to a single room in a motel to await work at the local meat packing plant. At the same time, teenager Amber works the counter at the local branch of Mickey's and is beginning to feel that something is not right.

Like many others, I found the book Fast Food Nation to be a compelling read, one that was sufficient to convince me to stop eating junk food (although coincidentally a terrible bout of food-poisoning from a certain chicken place meant that the attraction of the smell was lost to me forever). It wasn't enough to turn me vegetarian but it was impacting in its exposé of safety risks, worker rights, health concerns and so on. In bringing this book to the screen, the choice was made to do it as a work of fiction and take the story structure done in films like Traffic and Syriana, where we see a topic from many views, all coming together in one overall message or point. Having seen this approach produce some strong films, I was fine with this and not at all snooty about it not being a documentary. However, the problem I had with it is that it doesn't make this transition in a success way.

The problem is not with the jump from non-fiction to fiction but rather the way it is done. You see, instead of hanging together really well and brining the viewer to the inevitable conclusion, the film just seems to follow three threads – one of them sort of has an end but the other two fizzle away into nothing. This happens while the three also remain particularly separate from one another and never come together to form the message that the film is trying to deliver. In this regard actually the film also falls down because it didn't impact me at all and seemed to be unsure of quite what it was saying on various topics. The issue of working conditions is not really addressed in a way that is shocking and the film appears to rely on the gore of the kill floor to make the point – but those who are surprised by the unpleasantness of the process are perhaps being a bit naïve. Likewise in the area of marketing, the film doesn't really do much to make a point about the tactics and compromises made by these corporations – I expected more teeth, as it is it just fizzles away. These failures were across the board and I was surprised by just how weak it appeared in regards structure, delivery and hammering home the point. It is weakened further by making the points it does make in a very clumsy and hand-wringing fashion and it certainly never gets close to challenging the audience or revealing something about the bigger the picture.

You can see what the film could have been if you read the book and certainly the cast appeared to have been hoping for much more, given the names involved. Kinnear, Guzmán, Arquette, Willis, Kristofferson, Hawke and Lavigne all turn up and give reasonable performances, it is just a shame that the material doesn't justify them bothering. Moreno and Talancón are good in their roles and are the only people who I genuinely felt something for as characters – they did well to produce the vulnerability of pretty young women in their position, open to exploitation and forced to make at least some compromises to get by. Linklater's direction of the script he co-wrote is disappointing and it is hard to put the blame too far from his door.

Overall then an interesting enough film but one that is impossible to look passed the missed potential. Nothing really hangs together or comes together at the end. Threads are just forgotten without any real point made and, while one can understand why all the stars wanted to support this film, it is a shame that the material lets them down at every turn. Interesting but is weak in every way that Schlosser's book was strong; my advice would be to read that instead.