Rent Fast Food Nation (2007)

A powerful look at the journey of a burger. - Fast Food Nation review by CP Customer

Fast Food Nation revolves around three individuals associated with Mickey's, a fictitious burger chain riding high on the success of "The Big One" which is fast becoming one of the country's best selling burgers. At the top of the business is Don, the marketing director for Mickey's who is asked by to company CEO to visit its main supplier of burgers to check out its production processes, as some independent research had discovered a significant presence of faecal matter in the meat it supplies. He travels to the fictitious town of Cody, Colorado to a large combined slaughterhouse and meat packing plant where he uncovers a ruthless business which forces him to re-examine his own business morals. At the central point of the business is Amber a teenage part-time employee in a branch of Mickey's in Cody. Despite being seen as potential management material Amber is encouraged by her uncle to find more to life and becomes involved in a backlash protest at the business practices of her employer. At the bottom of the business chain is Sylvia, an immigrant from Mexico who illegally crosses the border with her husband and sister to find work in the U.S. When her husband and sister find work in the meat packing plant that supplies Mickey's it reveals a ruthless company that treats its employees little better than the meat it processes. While the film is a candid look at a section of the fast food business at no time does it ever really preach right from wrong, it simply tells a fictitious story of the journey the meat in a burger took to end up being served in a fast food restaurant, and the lives that were affected along the way. The direction from Richard Linklater is simple and to the point and the quality of acting is universally good and the characters within the film have real depth. Overall, this is a well crafted and absorbing film which doesn't moralise but at the same time doesn't shy away from the reality of what it takes to produce a cheap burger. Be warned, the second to last chapter on the DVD in the film includes a pretty horrific scene from the meat processing plants "kill floor", so even if your remotely squeamish you may want to skip forward a chapter.