Fast Food Nation

I viewed Fast Food Nation, the latest by Richard Linklater. I really like Richard Linklater, there has not yet been a movie by him I didn't like. He normally does dialogue heavy films that are very real and smart. He is also incredibly leftist, and it shows in most of his movies. I'm pretty lefty myself, so I dig that, though I find some of his views to be really out there. Fast Food Nation is much the same. You could probably tell from the beginning this was going to be a liberal movie, being that it's based a book that rips on the fast food industry and the cattle killing industry. But Linklater takes it a step farther, and rips on everything big business.

This movie had a big cast, with a number of small cameos from names like Bruce Willis and Ethan Hawke. The main stories were: Greg Kinnear, a marketing exec for Mickey's investigating reports that there are fecal coliforms (bacteria that is found in fecal matter) in the meat, the fictional fast food chain in the movie, Wilmer Valderrama and Catalina Sandeno Moreno, two illegal migrant workers just over from Mexico that work with UMP, a corporate meat packager and slaughter house, and Ashley Johnson who was the little girl on Growing Pains, a high school student that works at Mickey's that gets involved with a bunch of left-leaning college students.

To start, the movie was good. I really liked Kinnear's story arc as he learns that the execs of UMP are knowingly selling filthy meat, and that Bruce Willis' character, who is the head of UMP or something, I never really caught what, and his boss at Mickey's are at odds, and he could lose his job both if he tells of the filthy meat, or if he doesn't tell. Being the human sellout he is, he takes the easy way out, and just goes on marketing crap. It's the most interesting storyline, in my opinion. The storyline with the Mexicans was also good, but very sad, especially when it gets Marion Silver-esque (requiem for a dream).

Greg Kinnear's story only goes on for about half the movie. At the conclusion of his arc, Ashley Johnson's begins. This one was just cheesy, and it had Avril Lavigne. Who the hell casted that? Patricia Arquette played her mother, and Ethan Hawke was her uncle. And here's where I come to my biggest gripe. Ethan Hawke was basically a proxy for Linklater's leftist views. I could have handled it if he were the only one. However, these characters are scattered throughout the film, from the college students Ashley meets, to the rancher that Greg Kinnear talks to (played by Kris Kristofferson). It's just constant, all these different characters bitching about Corporate America, how money is all that matters, even going on about the timber and coal industries. I mean, I get it, yes, I hate how powerful those corporations are, and how like six corporations own everything. But I came here to watch a fictional interpretation of the book Fast Food Nation, not to hear MORE rants. It is like Linklater is just getting desperate at the lack of change in the world. I just hope this doesn't become a normal thing, using every opportunity to rant about the current state of things.

But yeah, I could go on more, it really disappointed me that he did that. It was purely a directorial decision I think to go that route. There is a lot about the terribleness of the fast food industry in there, but it really did not need anything more. Ethan Hawke's character just pushed it over the line, he was so ridiculous. Everything he said was some leftist proverb to live by. I'm guessing he was stoked to play that role, but it was so pointless.

I also really don't like Wilmer Valderrama, primarily because he hosts that insult show on MTV. I really don't like Fez either. And no, he doesn't really do anything in this movie either. CSM (Catalina, not cigarette smoking man) and Kinnear put on the best performances. Bobby Cannavale is a huge bastard, but pretty good to watch.

When Kinnear is talking to Kristofferson about UMP, Kristofferson mentions how bad the kill floor is. You really don't want to go to the kill floor. The movie still goes there at the end, and it is foul, and awful.

Ok, I think I got it all out. Drexel needs to stop showing previews of movies that are already out, i.e. Bobby and Shut Up and Sing. They also need to stop playing movies like Shut Up and Sing.