Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, rejected five times by the
USC film school, won the best director award at the 2004
Sundance Film Festival for this alarmingly personal investigation
into the health hazards wreaked by our fast food nation.
Under extensive medical supervision, Spurlock subjects
himself to a steady diet of McDonald's cuisine for 30 days
just to see what happens. In less than a week, his ordinarily
fit body and equilibrium undergo dark and ugly changes:
Spurlock grows fat, his cholesterol rockets north, his
organs take a beating, and he becomes subject to headaches,
mood swings, symptoms of addiction, and lessened sexual
energy. The gimmick is too obvious to sustain a feature
documentary; Spurlock actually spends most of the film
probing insidious ways that fast food companies worm their
way into school lunchrooms and the hearts of young children
who spend hours in McDonald's playrooms. French fries never
looked more nauseating.