Super Size Me
November 2004 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Super Size Me is a controversial film based on an experiment. Director and star Morgan Spurlock eats at McDonald's exclusively for 30 days and documents the experience. His rules are that he can only eat what McDonald's sells, he has to try everything on the menu at least once, he has to eat three meals a day, and if he's asked "Would you like to Super Size that?" he has to oblige. What happens, naturally, is that he gains weight -- 25 pounds, which represents almost 15% of his pre-experiment bodyweight -- and feels terrible, citing depression, fatigue and sexual apathy as effects of his McDiet. We get to see his girlfriend, doctors and dietician urge him to stop the diet as his health goes from above average to decidedly poor, and we see some of the physical toll the experiment takes, including vomiting and heart palpitations.

But Super Size Me is about more than the issue of a poor diet's effect on health. It reveals the various ways in which fast-food chains attempt to get our money, including marketing directly to children. Fast food is everywhere. It is sold in gas stations, retail stores and, worst of all, schools, bombarding people young and old with opportunities to become obese and diabetic. One of Spurlock's doctors speculates that he becomes addicted to eating at McDonald's. Fast food is engineered to appeal to us, so this is no exaggeration.

Like Michael Moore, Spurlock is very likeable as the star of his film, and this helps us empathize with him, which drives home the point that eating fast food is bad on many levels. He is also a talented director, telling his story in a compelling, stylish way. UCLA film school rejected him five times, yet for Super Size Me he won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival. D'oh!

DVD extras consist of a director's commentary (which includes comments from Spurlock's girlfriend Alex, a vegan chef) and deleted scenes, along with extended interviews with some of the people shown in the movie. One person missing from the movie but interviewed for the DVD is Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, a well-written and -researched book on the fast-food industry that can be considered an in-depth companion to Super Size Me. There is also a short feature called "The Smoking Fry" that proves visually why you should not eat McDonald's French fries.

Spurlock has been the target of campaigns to discredit him and his movie, and some of what has been written and said makes for worthy debate. I wondered, for instance, if during his experiment Spurlock was his own worst enemy by eating so much McFood -- often entire meals washed down with what seem like barrels of soda and sometimes followed by dessert. However, the main point of Super Size Me is an important one, especially as obesity reaches epidemic proportions in America: McDonald's and other fast-food chains don't consider your welfare as they attempt to separate you from your money. For calling attention to a serious public-health issue, Super Size Me may be the most important movie you will see this year. I hope it gets at least an Oscar nomination and keeps its message in front of people's ever-stuffed faces.

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