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So, I went to see Fast Food Nation. And, wow, it’s kind of a mess–though a well-meaning one, a tangle of half-developed plots and cardboard characters all marshaled not so much to tell a story as bolster the bullet points of Eric Schlosser ‘s original muckraking brilliance. The fast-food industry cares more about profits than people–thus Greg Kinnear’s corporate patsy, who may mean well but is so fundamentally corrupt he watches bad girl-on-girl porn in his hotel room! Meatpackers exploit and abuse immigrant labor–so the menacing manager at the plant isn’t just a soulless prick, he’s also a sexual predator who gets his illegal Mexican girlfriends hooked on crank!
All I can think it’s that it’s a consequence of enlightenment: I’ve read Schlosser already–and Michael Pollan, and Temple Grandin–and I already know slaughterhouses are animal hell on earth. I think this is the biggest problem with the film: Linklater is preaching to the choir, and for those who haven’t joined up already there’s not much other incentive to pay the $9.50 it costs to hear the sermon.
