Food, Inc.

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: June 12th, 2009 (limited)

Starring: Eric Schlosser, Joel Salatin, Richard Lobb, Carole Morison, Troy Roush
 
Directed by: Robert Kenner 

Premise: The veil on our nation's food industry is lifted, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.

[Gamblour.]

This kind of picks up where King Corn and, I'm guessing because I haven't seen it, Super Size Me leave off. King Corn is really a close comparison in that's talking about the industry in relation to actual farming and the effects subsidies have. I think the film is really poses a good argument, but it seems to meander and spread itself too thin at the same time. I think this would work a lot better as a television series or something. Each new title card felt like they could've gone even further with the subject matter.

And the big gross no-no was the preachy message at the end. Their point was there in spades and then they have a bunch of "in case you're too fucking stupid and just happened to be watching this movie, go to our website." Anyway, it was beneath the movie. The talking heads were great, except the guy who wrote Fast Food Nation seemed like an idiot. The Omnivore's Dilemma guy was beyond academic and so eloquent and wonderful. And the grass-feeding farmer was a complete badass. I felt pretty confused about the whole seed cleaning business with Monsanto, they skim right past that without any elaborate explanation, yet they'll spend time with a goofy "evolution of humans' weight" animation. Priorities, guys.

Overall, good. Rental for sure.