Super Size Me Movie Review

You may find yourself swearing off Big Macs forever after watching Morgan Spurlock's award-winning documentary SUPER SIZE ME, a hilarious but nevertheless shocking critique of the American fascination with (and addiction to) fast food. Spurlock hits everything from Pepsi to school lunchrooms to veganism in his scattershot examination of our national food fixation, but his main target is the fast food industry, and in particular, its undisputed pacesetter McDonald's. To challenge the prevailing wisdom of recent court decisions -- where judges found that plaintiffs were unable to prove the damaging effects of eating under the Golden Arches -- Spurlock decides to document a personal journey as a self-selected lab rat. For an entire month in 2002, Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's food at every meal. The devastating effects this initially flighty decision has on his physical, mental, and emotional health make SUPER SIZE ME an invigorating, ingenious piece of social commentary.

There's no way to watch Morgan Spurlock in action without thinking of Michael Moore (Bowling For Columbine), the reigning clown prince of American documentary filmmaking. Like Moore, Spurlock concerns himself with socio-economic forces that negatively affect the culture. He's unafraid to take on the captains of industry, or to dally in political baiting when the mood strikes him. But most tellingly, he shares Moore's comic approach and self-aggrandizing nature. Both men are witty experts in finding humor in horrific situations, and are engaging screen presences...but neither can resist becoming their own leading actor, which reduces the effectiveness of their arguments at times. They are fascinating examples of inconsistency, advocates for the common man who succumb to the pull of celebrity culture. They are perfectly imperfect filmmakers, and their rough edges are what make them simultaneously engaging and irritating.

Unlike some of Moore's work, however, Spurlock's gadfly routine has a clear motif. In his view, the confluence of Big Media (advertising dollars) and Big Economy (cheap ingredients, mass production) is wreaking nutritional havoc on the world populace. One of the many experts in SUPER SIZE ME calls today's food culture "toxic", and judging from the events in the film, it's hard to argue otherwise. Factoid after factoid comes flying from the screen in spunky, witty graphics -- the Fruit and Yoghurt has more calories than the Chocolate Sundae! There's sugar in the Garden Salad! The mounting data is a powerfully convincing tool.

But it's nothing compared to Spurlock's personal journey. As a filmmaker, he well understands the comic absurdity of his Mac Attack Adventure, and his first day of binging is colored with the glee of a kid who expects a junk-food banquet. As the days pass, however, the colorful veneer begins to fade, and then disappears entirely -- Spurlock gains 17 pounds in 12 days, sees a 50% increase in his cholesterol, and begins to suffer night sweats, chest pains and headaches. His crew of doctors and nutritionists become seriously concerned; one of them, Dr. Daryl Issacs, becomes so worried about the damage to his liver that he thinks death may not be completely out of the question. The registered shock in Spurlock's eyes shows tellingly. It is a brilliant cinematic moment, when the film leaves Spurlock's control entirely.

Still, it's not all depressing...nor is it all one big diet infomercial. Spurlock's girlfriend, Alexandra, is a vegan chef who bemoans this fast-food experiment, which she sees as unnecessary and damaging. (One of the most surprising moments in the film come with Alex's blunt revelations about the detrimental effects McDonald's has had on Morgan's sexual performance abilities...funny, touching, and sad all at once.) Still, when Alex leaps to proselytizing about the dangers of meat, Spurlock stops her cold. While veganism has its clear benefits, the resistance to go too far saves SUPER SIZE ME from becoming a mere polemic.

There's priceless humor as well. When Alex compares the jones for hamburgers to the jones for heroin, Spurlock immediately pumps the soundtrack with Pete Shelley's "Pusher Man." A testy confrontation about school lunches -- the school district argues that kids need healthy and unhealthy options, to "teach them to make choices" -- turns absurd when a young girl orders a lunch of french fries and milk. It's Spurlock's light touch that ultimately keeps SUPER SIZE ME entertaining and educational, without sacrificing one for the other.

SUPER SIZE ME also acknowledges the hard, cold reality that fast food, and unhealthy food in general, is here to stay. The economics make it too profitable; the prioritizing of short-term gratification over long-term health makes it too easy. Spurlock is arguing that change, if it happens at all, will have to come from us. As an overweight man myself, I can attest to the difficulty of that struggle. But as a viewer of SUPER SIZE ME, I can also say that the difficulty is irrelevant...if America wants to find itself, it will have to put down the Quarter Pounder and pick up the mirror that Spurlock offers us.