An unfortunate box office flameout last fall — where it
grossed just over $1 million in a somewhat mangled and abortive platform
release — Fast Food Nation marks
indie-minded auteur Richard Linklater’s last curveball entry, and it’s a shame
it didn’t get a better look at theaters, because Linklater is a superbly
skilled, thoughtful director who — different genre work notwithstanding —
always seems to locate the uncertainties and dark curiosities of his
characters. Be it comedy or drama, they never stop trying, questioning,
thinking.
investigatory non-fiction novel of the same name, Fast Food Nation takes an impressive aerial view of the quick-eats
industry. It isn’t a comedy or satire, yet neither is it a dour drama or
reactionary indictment. Trading in the same sort of multi-story,
connect-the-dots template most recently indulged by films like Traffic and Syriana, it shows how cows and illegal immigrants are equal
exploitable and expendable in a system that values haste and the bottom line
above all else.
marketing executive relatively new to his position with dominant fast food
chain Mickey’s, being dispatched to Cody, Colorado to investigate claims that
the meat supply for the restaurant’s new hamburgers has been contaminated with
animal excrement. Don visits the local establishment, where he meets bright
high school student Amber (Ashley Johnson), who cashiers to help her single
mother Cindy (Patricia Arquette) pay the bills.
of town, but doesn’t get to see its kill floor effluvium. It’s only when Don
meets with Rudy (Kris Kristofferson), an old rancher who’s wise to the
realities of the company, that he then begins to see some of the bigger
picture.
provided by human cargo runners like Benny (Luis Guzman). Among the newest
workers at UMP are sisters Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and
(Ana Claudia Talancon), and Sylvia’s boyfriend Raul (Wilmer Valderrama,
achieving a surprising stillness), who have border-hopped across
and headed to
for better jobs. Shift foreman Mike (Bobby Cannavale) runs roughshod over them
— Sylvia promptly quits, but eventually comes back — striking up an affair with
Linklater has a deft touch with small comedy of the everyday — particularly
when Amber’s rebellious, free-thinking uncle Pete (frequent collaborator Ethan
Hawke) pays her a visit and scratches her a promissory note for $1,000 on a bar
napkin if she makes it to 21 years of age without getting pregnant. Amber’s
interactions with her sullen coworker Brian (the ubiquitous Paul Dano) also
perfectly capture the downtime languor of adolescent employment.
refusal to let its characters become ideologues; differing viewpoints are
presented plainly and without the strained veins of righteous raging. The movie
is, at its core, about different, everyday people each weighing the cost and
effort of doing what’s best and doing what’s most expeditious and personally
advantageous. Overall, it may lean a bit more toward the thought-provoking than
blithe entertainment, but Fast Food
Nation never feels less than real, and it shares its maker’s agitant’s
soul. If that sort of commitment to quiet authenticity in an age of big screen flash
and grander emotive speechifying means Linklater continues to retain much of his
puzzling, relative anonymity, it’s certainly not reflective of his skill.
aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition, Fast Food Nation comes with optional English, Spanish and French
subtitles and an English language 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound mix. A
fantastic audio commentary track from Linklater and Schlosser reveal both men
to be thoughtful, as well as quite happy collaborators. An equally superb,
hour-long making-of featurette, directed by Kevin Ford, chronicles the
project’s journey to the big screen with detail and clarity. Rounding out the
disc’s supplemental extras are a still photo gallery and a collection of
promotional animated flash shorts, styled after The Matrix, that are darkly satirical stabs at the same sinister
captains of industry under the microscope in the feature film. B (Movie) A-
(Disc)