Not So Fast

Fast Food Nation is a 2006 film loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same title. Directed by Richard Linklater (of indie movie acclaim), it's a collection of interwoven stories all revolving around a giant fast food chain. We follow an executive looking into accusations of tainted beef, illegal Mexican immigrants working in the meat processing plant, minimum wage workers at a local restaurant, and more.

The cast is what drew me to take a look at the film. It's a long list including Greg Kinnear, Wilmer Valderrama, Bobby Cannavale, Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Paul Dano, Luis Guzmán, and even (oddly) pop star Avril Lavigne.

And while many of the performances are very good (particularly Willis' indignant single-scene cameo), ultimately the movie is a bit aimless. The "fast food bad" message was hardly news by the time this film was made from the book, and is even less so today. More problematic, the movie doesn't even really seem to go after that message too directly; the theme is circumstantial, secondary to watching this collection of characters in a variety of situations ranging from trying to awful. There's no real narrative with a beginning, middle, or end, only a dreary point at which things just stop and the end credits roll.

Some of the sequences are entertaining, particularly those surrounding a young group of headstrong activists who discover that it's hard to actually do anything in support of their anti-fast food cause. But it all just comes off as a clever anecdote or two, and not really worthy of a movie.

I'd grade the movie a middle-of-the-road C. It needed to pick one side of that road, and either be a hard-hitting documentary aiming to change minds, or a piece of entertainment with an actual story to tell.