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By Gerald Peary
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In this entertaining agitprop documentary, New York filmmaker Morgan Spurlock appoints himself president of our fast-food nation for a month, spending 30 on-camera days binging at McDonald’s, gorging on three greasy, revolting, calorie-and-cholesterol-packed meals each 24 hours. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners spill into one another as Spurlock becomes an ingesting machine of Big Macs and beyond: elephantine shakes, massive Cokes, Egg McMuffins galore, and enough oily fries to start a mud slide. He’s pledged to sample everything on the menu at least once, including the turd-like fish sandwiches and the — what the heck is in them? — Chicken McNuggets. As he screams out, "Supersize me!" The purpose of Spurlock’s experiment is to determine whether fast food is as lethal as the naysayers — including his vegan-chef girlfriend — insist. The answer from his McMonth is that it’s far far worse: his health goes spiraling out of control, his blood pressure and his cholesterol level skyrocket, and there’s liver damage. Where once he was a hot lover, his girlfriend reports that he’s now sluggish and tired. His weight? The studly, in-shape Spurlock transforms into the pudgy beginnings of Michael Moore. The whole film is, in fact, Moore lite, and Spurlock is as much a camera hog and ham as the Bowling for Columbine maestro. Some will be put off by his egotism and his infantile puke-and-rectal humor. But young people may flock to Super Size Me. And if even one vulnerable person decides to avoid the ominous yellow arches . . . (98 minutes) At the Avon.
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