SUPER SIZE ME
[] (three stars)
An amusing McGimmick. Running time: 98 minutes. Not Rated (language, adult situations and themes). At the Angelika, the Lincoln Square, others.
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FAST food is unhealthy, so it stands to reason that a lot of fast food would be very unhealthy.
There’s no surprise ending for documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who makes himself the lab-rat subject of the Sundance hit “Super Size Me” by eating nothing but McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a month.
Pretty predictably, his drive-through diet packs on the pounds – 25 in total – and spikes his cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, although the doctors who examine him are shocked by the extent of the toxicity of his liver.
“My experiment may have been a little extreme, but not that crazy; some people eat [McDonald’s] every day,” the 33-year-old New Yorker says.
Well, it is extreme – Spurlock chose not to exercise at all for 30 days and ate every one of his meals off the Mickey D’s menu, super-sizing them when asked – but the gimmick works.
Spurlock’s methodology may be dodgy, but there’s no question that his stunt provides the backbone for an entertaining look at America’s obesity epidemic and a lively exploration of personal versus corporate responsibility.
Taking a leaf out of Michael “Bowling for Columbine” Moore’s book, Spurlock helps the educational medicine go down with more than a spoonful of humor (and an unwavering focus on himself).
He keeps the tone light and irreverent, and the documentary zips along on a wave of colorful graphics, little animated bits and bursts of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” – punctuated with sobering facts and figures, and serious-minded interviews with doctors, nutritionists and school officials.
Spurlock doesn’t shrink from using gross-out shock tactics – his camera zooms in on the aftermath of a vomiting episode, and we are invited along to his rectal exam.
But it’s the simple dissection of what goes into making a Chicken McNugget that will really turn your stomach.