A Soggy Flop With a Side of Frustration

      Richard Linklater breaks down the enigma that is the fast food industry in his “mock-umentary”, Fast Food Nation, but it fails to capture the tone promised by the trailers.

      Based on a non-fiction novel by Eric Schlosser, Linklater adapted and directed Fast Food Nation, being his second project released this year. Linklater is famous for establishing a philosophy, which he translates into his films, but in Fast Food Nation he has molded his characters into blunt tools. The film’s tagline, “the truth is hard to swallow”, became the motto for his intent to exploit the fast food industry; this movie left viewers chocking on dry, wit-less monologues.

      Marketed as a comedy, Linklater does little to ease the audience into the harsh subject matter with his stiff characters; anything that was funny about the movie was given away by the previews. The movie boasts a cast like Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia Arquette, but most performances disappoint. Viewers came expecting a witty satire much like that of “Thank You For Smoking” and left frustrated by a lack of laughter.

      Kinnear’s character, Don Anderson, is an executive for a fast food company cleverly titled Mickey’s Burgers. He is sent on a search to find the cause of the fecal matter in the company’s meat, and through this journey unveils a series of problems within the fast food industry. The film is broken up episodically, separating characters by different ethnic and social classes in order to show the spectrum of affect that the fast food industry has; subsequently, Kinnear’s storyline is more forgiving than others because he plays his part well.

      Conversely, Ethan Hawke’s character fell victim to Linklater’s personified philosophy. Hawke plays the uncle of a young Mickey’s employee (Ashley Johnson) and becomes a “surgical” tool Linklater uses to transplant rebellion into the young employee. The audience is force-fed monotonous dialogue and made to sit through mindless and pretentious banter between Hawke and Arquette’s characters.

      By far, the worst part of this film was a scene in which Johnson puts into action the rebellion programmed into her. The movie becomes something like a ‘70’s after school special on how to rebel against the “man”. Furthermore, the cameo by singer Avril Lavigne smears a sloppy fecal-burger on any credibility the film had left.

      Though credibility was lost, the film regained some dignity with a cameo from Bruce Willis. Willis plays Harry Rydell, an executive for the company that supplies Mickey’s with its burgers. His cool tone eases the audience out of the meat grinder and people whisper with recognition.

      Wilmer Valderrama also has a considerable role in this movie; Linklater is also famous for rendering an unlikely, but familiar cast as in his 1993 film Dazed and Confused. Valderrama plays an illegal immigrant who comes to America only to work in a meatpacking factory. Valderrama actually has a serious role, but speaks Spanish through most of the movie, leaving the viewer to pick through captions: wondering if he’ll be the one to say something funny. Linklater tries to make the movie controversial by exploring the use of drugs among immigrant workers, but seeing Valderrama on Meth-Amphetamine is just not believable.

      Overall, this film tries too hard. Linklater’s attempt at uncovering “the truth” is spoiled by his overly ostentatious approach at philosophy and senseless sense of humor. Fast Food Nation is now out on DVD.

Written by Ashley Withers