Fast Food Nation The Latest From The, "I Wish I was Traffic," Combo Meal

Richard Linklater, Austin, Texas' directorial wunderkind, a man seemingly perched on the precipice of inheriting the throne to the oxymoron of big-time independent filmmaking, has, in recent years halted his own ascent. Curiously, he has taken up the task of producing bland, tepid and vitriolic, verbose fare, which merely hints at the possibilities his work used to display.

Taking his queue, here, from the non-fiction novel of the same name, Linklater, from almost the get go, struggles to find his voice, reason and determination with this film. The allusions to the continuously imitated, but never dupicated, "Traffic", are astounding. The template that "Traffic" offers is one kind of cinematic temptation any director, with a social agenda on their plate, seems incapable of resisting. Films like "Crash", "Syriana", "Babel" and now "Fast Food Nation," all utilize the technique to very disparate levels of success and even more declining levels of originality. Sadly, "Fast Food Nation," is scraping the bottom of the barrel with a leaky script, transparent characters and MTV influenced casting.

To clarify the "Traffic"-lite sensibilities, instead of the enigmatic Benicio Del Toro, as the well intentioned and nearly saint-like, Mexican moral compass of the film, we are treated to Ashton Kutcher's personal coattail rider, Wilmer Valderama. In a completely Spanish-speaking role, Valderama does a moderately decent job of convincing us he is some other person, not the nebbish, medium-pimpin', sex-machine with the oddly astounding quotient of hot ex-girlfriends. Speaking of Valderama's girlfriends, here, in the too tightly wound confines of "Fast Food Nation," he is burdened with a saintly woman who crosses the border with him and their closest friends seeking a role in America and a chance at happiness and finacial security. What they find, however, is a chance to be pushed through the machine, like so much cattle. Here, in Linklater's vision, they quickly find work slaughtering, gutting and cleaning the very animals that feed the faces and contribute to the bulging waistbands of Americans everywhere. The food isn't clean, its disease ridden flesh, as so delicately pointed out by the film, is riddled with feces. So, I ask you this: If Valderama and his crew are so saintly, why the hell can't they get the crap out of the burger? I'll tell you. Linklater is so single-mindedly obsessed with exposing the alleged truths in the context of the book that he treats the subject matter like the most important character in the film, but never actually introduces it to the one's he fictionalized for the purpose of the narration. Valderama and Co. are merely presented as faux heartstrings. Your instinct is to naturally feel bad for them, but utilizing a mild analytical approach and realization of how you, the viewer are being manipulated - or taken advantage of, really, you can look past the crap and see the film for what it really is. "Fast Food Nation," is simply a film that is disseminating the facts as it wishes they were. This, is not necessarily a crime, in the world of filmmaking, in fact, it's a great way to get a point across, but usually the film is also entertaining - or more useful that this. Here, facts are totally reconfigured to represent the socio-political machinations of a director who is simply furthering his agenda; an agenda, which I happen to totally agree with.

Sadly, however, while the agenda comes through just fine, in essence; it's the delivery system that falters and all at once, spits in the proverbial sandwich. It's not even that Linklater chose to hijack Steven Gaghan's screenplay template - after all, Gaghan, himself hijacked his own work when he made Syriana, but even that movie's lack of originality still played true, simply because it was a screenwriter going back to his own well, not the well of others. The problems don't stop with simply the screenplay. While much adulation can be bestowed on Linklater's earlier work, the same cannot be given here. Instead of the light-hearted or intelligently thought provoking discourse, that permeated almost all of his previous films, here, the characters all seem to have sold their soul to the corporate devil, all for the same thing: a quick and easy paycheck. This, in and of itself, would be fine, as far as character development goes, which in this film, goes nowhere, but added to the fact that I'm already feeling sorry for myself, because I paid money to watch a movie starring Wilmer Valderama, I feel cheated because all of the characters are stock. They serve no other purpose, but to spew the ideals set forth in the film. When all is said and done, the words that come out of each and every character's mouths are no more impactful than the title of the movie itself.

As the movie drags on, we witness each character, faced with the problematic decision on whether or not to sell out to the corporate giants that underhandedly rule our society, do that very thing. We witness, Kris Kristofferson give a lecture to Greg Kinnear about the evil that is the meatpacking industry, then we witness Kinnear inexplicably back at work. We witness, Valderama's friend have his leg chewed off in a meat grinder, then, in an all too easy act of selflessness, we see his girlfriend receive employment at the meatpacking plant, in exchange for sex, which, strangely, is not with Valderama. This paint by numbers suffering, followed by pontification falling on deaf ears, makes for a very long, very tedious picture.

"Fast Food Nation," employs all the subtlety of the PETA, "Meet Your Meat," video - you know, the one that turned all the really annoying girls in your high school into vegetarians? All this film succeeds in is revealing that the true evil comes from the manipulative filmmakers, ones like Linklater, who, when pursuing the education of the American people, decide to do it with all the finesse and grace of a playground bully. When faced with the moral obligation of siding with the little guy, they do what comes easiest, but that, which is also incredibly tacky and disgusting; they use Avril Lavigne - wait... no, they use guilt! Instead of simply focusing on the issues - or delivering the message, Linklater feels inclined to also tell the viewer how they should feel and react. This annoying trend of believing himself to be smarter and more liberal than his viewers is quickly losing Linklater the majority of those to whom he would down talk.