Super Size Me

A great, glowing neon sign reading Suspicions Confirmed appeared in my brain when I went to check writer/producer/director/star Morgan Spurlock’s credentials after watching his Super Size Me. I discovered that Spurlock’s only other credit was as producer and actor on an MTV series called I Bet You Will. See, I knew there was a reason that this guy was so reality-TV smug and hip that he made my teeth hurt!

OK, I don’t deny that he marshals some pretty compelling evidence against eating fast food, especially the McDonald’s version of it. Yet I can’t get away from the fact that he accomplishes this by doing something no rational person would be likely to — by eating three McMeals a day for 30 days. The boredom factor alone would rule this out for most of us. And it would likely rule it out for Spurlock, too, were it not for the fact that he’s engaged in what he calls an experiment — and what I’m more inclined to label a stunt. I’m less certain that Spurlock is a man with a mission to bring out the truth of the evils of fast food than I am resolutely convinced that he’s a man out to draw attention to himself in order to sell his film.

Granted, accusing Spurlock of grandstanding could be — and has been — done to Michael Moore as well. And it’s not in the least surprising that Spurlock’s film, with its animations and onscreen protagonist/documentarian, resembles Moore’s own work. However, apart from a bit thrown in near the end where McDonald’s won’t return Spurlock’s calls, that’s about where the similarities end. Moore manipulates his footage and integrates himself into his films, yes, but he also lets others do the work of making most of his points. Spurlock’s film calls for it to be pretty much all-Spurlock-all-the-time.

I don’t begrudge him stacking the deck to prove his point, but when his first Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese meal causes him to break out in a sweat and throw up, I’m finding my credulity stretched. I also find it more than a little faux-ingenuous that Spurlock never once suggests that the American reliance on fast food has anything to do with our increasingly weird work schedules, our lack of free time and the general pace of so much of modern life. Sure, a lot of the fast-food epidemic stems from marketing and corporate greed and lobbying, but a good bit of it has to do with our circumstances as well. In essence, Spurlock is trivializing a very real problem — especially in light of the stunt nature of his presentation –by finding one easy villain in order to provide “fast, fast, fast relief.”

At bottom, this is a film that doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know, though it does manage to do so with a certain entertaining verve. But here again, its entertaining approach was constantly undermined for me by its maker’s overbearing smugness.

— reviewed by Ken Hanke