Fast Food Nation
By Kevin Baker, Blockbuster.co.uk

Much like the cute smiles of a cat outside your window, those crafty golden arches have been drawing us in for years. Look hard enough and you’ll find even the fittest of the fit hunched up alone at the back end of a McDonalds restaurant a while before it closes. Even I find it difficult to just walk straight past a fast food joint sometimes, not because I accept the negative aspects of eating it but because I don’t really think about them. This movie is the alarm call that we all needed to hear.

Many people adhere to the “I don’t want to meet the cow before I have the steak” philosophy, but deep down we know its important to have some sort of idea of what we are putting into our mouths. Based on the best selling non-fiction book, “Fast Food Nation” is a semi-documentary drama set in the roughage of the fast food industry.

From medical labs combining chemicals to provide a certain “natural” taste, to inner-office politics, the Writer/Director, Linklater delves into all the issues that the book did, except with the film there is a new character driven plot to spice things up a bit.

First we meet the Mexican illegal’s (Willmar Valderrama, Catalina Sandino Moreno) who struggle through the treacherous border jumping process to settle in Colorado, where the only jobs they can secure are in meatpacking plants run by corrupt supervisors (Bobby Cannavale).

Don (Greg Kinnear) is an executive at Mickey's, a fast food giant, sent to Colorado to investigate a claim that animal faeces is somehow getting into the meat that makes up the chain's biggest-selling burger. Amber (Ashley Johnson) is a lower-class teenager stuck working at Mickey's, but dreams a better life outside of minimum wage and dead end employment.

Often uneasy and eye-opening viewing, this is likely to make even the most full-on burger fan think twice before ordering his next triple-layered bun, and those with a sensitive disposition may find some of the factory scenes unsettling - but thanks to Richard Linklater's smart direction the initial comic tone gives way to a more serious and thought-provoking second half. If it tickles your cinematic taste buds, it's probably not a good idea to book an after-show dinner.

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