Fast-food suicide

Taking a page from the Michael Moore book of activist filmmaking, Average Joe Morgan Spurlock goes the extra step and literally risks his life to document the effect on life and libido of sticking to a strict McDonald’s-only diet. Guided by the rules that there would be no other outside source of nutrition and that if asked if he would take his meal “super-sized,” Spurlock saw his health and even sanity begin to be corrupted over the course of his month-long quest.

A handful of health professionals chart the deterioration of the once vigorous man, as pounds begin to pile on and his liver begins to spasm in toxic shock. Along the way, his vegan chef girlfriend observes, transitioning over the course of the month from bemusement to disgust to, eventually, fear for her lover’s life as his liver literally begins to turn to patà.

This is a simple (and perhaps easy-target) concept for a documentary, and yet it’s filled with clever and insightful observations that add up to more laughs for the cynically inclined than most comedies Hollywood has to offer. The emphasis here, along with the deteriorative effects of fast food, is the culture of obesity that Americans are force-fed from the time they catch their first glimpses of Ronald McDonald and yet have seemingly embraced unquestioningly.

Even for those who rarely "indulge" in an occasional guilty tryst with Micky Dee’s, this is alarming stuff, with the dietary subversion of public schools offering up a cultural red flag. Recommended/required viewing for parents, children and every non-mercenary cafeteria nutritionist.