Reviews

Films

Fast Food Nation

Directed by Richard Linklater, starring Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke

Choosing to take the fictional rather than documentary route in adapting Eric Schlosser's best selling novel, Fast Food Nation makes its impact but wears its heart so proudly on its sleeve that you'd think Michael Moore was behind the camera.

Schlosser's book is a stomach-churning investigation into the practices of big industrial food suppliers and their clients (ie: McDonalds, Burger King). The film it inspires tells its story with multiple narrative threads just like other recent socially conscious movies like Traffic and Crash.

Don Henderson (Kinnear) is an advertising executive who is told by his employer, Mickey's Burgers, to visit their supplier and investigate findings that their meat is full of crap. The plant he visits is up to no good, not only with the way they produce their product but also how they treat their illegal migrant workers.

Elsewhere, another Mickey's employee, 18-year-old Amber, becomes radicalized against her workplace after hanging out with a gang of liberal college students. Their statement to the corporations: set the cows in the feedlot free.

Most people know by now that eating the food made by Mickeys-type chains is not good for you. With this in mind, the Richard Linklater-directed Fast Food Nation expands its scope beyond what's in the burger to castigate the hulking dark side of capitalism. Migrant workers, frustrated middle-aged middle-management, decision makers unwilling to blow the whistle on crooked practices and disaffected youth are all represented here in this chatty, preachy but occasionally powerful polemic. Ben Davey

Silverado

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, starring Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner

Four years after his brilliant noir debut, Body Heat, Lawrence Kasdan turned his attention to the Western. Less an homage to the genre than a smorgasbord of every conceivable stereotype associated with it, Silverado embodies the escapism of the films that it emulates and discards the depth. This is all about good-looking cowboys having a few laughs and fighting for people who can't fight for themselves. Unlike say, Ethan Edwards from The Searchers, these are not complex men.

As the story begins, Emmet (Scott Glenn), a stoic cowboy, finds Paden (Kevin Kline) half dead in the desert. After nursing him back to health, the two break Emmet's goofy brother Jake (Kevin Costner) out of the clink. During their escape they are aided by Mal (Danny Glover), a black man who faces racism in every town he rides into.

The four then head for Silverado, a place ruled with an iron fist by a corrupt Sheriff (Brian Dennehy) and despotic landowner. Knowing they have to do something, it will be up to the four heroic horsemen to set things right.

Fantastic cinematography from the get-go (the opening scene is something else) and enthusiastic performances from nearly the entire cast makes this infectiously fun viewing.

Director Kasdan has essentially condensed dozens of movies into one 2-hour feature jam-packed with shootouts, saloon standoffs, injustice, heroism and even a pseudo-philosophical barmaid. There are so many characters here, and so many plot developments that none are ever fleshed-out, but this is more about the thrill of the ride than the beating of the brow. BD

(China Daily 08/22/2007 page20)