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Director:
Morgan Spurlock

Starring:
Morgan Spurlock

Release: 7 May 04
IMDb

Morgan Spurlock may be the new Michael Moore (well, until our man from Flint releases his Cannes winning Fahrenheit 9/11), making a documentary in which the audience becomes increasingly uncomfortable with his persona but still intrigued by his findings. I’m already on record criticizing Moore for Bowling for Columbine, but Spurlock’s stature a hack director with a meaningful subject is more pressing. I cringed every time I saw the man, but I can’t say he didn’t convince me (something Moore has yet to do).

Spurlock, defying the Atkins diet (it’s about time!), puts his body through the ringer by eating only McDonalds for a month. Since there are already thousands of people who already do this, one might imagine that his body deformation would be anticlimactic, but the impact is that he’s a fairly fit guy for his age at the beginning, and, by the last few days, doctors are already warning him to cut back or die.

Sure, I quit fast food years ago because I was tired of dealing with its promotional clout and over-processed offerings (I did not, as many people have accused me of, do it after reading Fast Food Nation), so perhaps I count as the choir for Spurlock’s preacher, but it’s hard to discount his results. Super Size Me isn’t a particularly well made film, but I think it has some worth in what it shows. Not everyone’s body is the same as his; some could do this diet and let their metabolism wring the Big Macs through. But, with an alarmingly obese nation, I fear that his is the micro story of a macro epidemic.