Super-Size Me (2004)

Subject: Morgan Spurlock (writer/director) eats nothing but McDonald's for 30 days while considering America's obsession with fast-food, its obesity crisis, and other nutritional ideas.

A highly irreverent, highly tough-in-cheek look at what the rest of us would never do to prove a point. And I do love it when people really want to make a point.

Is this a rigorous, scientific look at the dangers of excessive fast-food consumption? Of course not. Why would you want to see such a film?

But it is a good documentary. Spurlock sticks to the basics of film-making, keeping his focus while examining why it is that we eat the poor way that we do. He outlines his points with verbally and through images, so you never get confused about what's going on. In addition, at 96 minutes, he doesn't keep you sitting there for what can often seem like an eternity in the realm of non-fiction.

He does his best work not when he interacts with the public (although there are some priceless moments there), but when he discusses, describes, and creatively animates what is happening to his body. He does, I will warn you, throw up a lot on day three. But never again after that.

Personally, I feel that all this dependence on fast-foods is wrapped up in the myth that we are in some sort of a hurry. Everyone believes that they simply don't have enough time to do the things that they need to get done in a day, so they find ways to cut corners (how else could you explain the hundreds of new disposable products on the market? do you really need to create more garbage?).

Honestly, though, the most powerful segment for me wasn't in the original movie but in the bonus features. In a section entitled The Smoking Fry, Spurlock leaves various McDonald's sandwiches and one super-size fries to rot in containers in this office, as well as a hamburger and fries from a real hamburger place. The latter two were the first two go. In a show of pure horror, the sandwiches eventually rot. The fries, oh those once delicious golden institutions, look exactly the same 10 weeks later. Exactly, exactly the same.

I will never eat their fries again. Never, never ever. Food decomposes. These things might have been made of Styrofoam. A-