Morgan Spurlock
Super Size Me

A charming docu-film, this 'Super Size Me' by Morgan Spurlock (title borrowed from a Special Promotion slogan by McDonald's ongoing at the time of filming), halfway between a comedy and a work of denunciation where, deliberately, the author (as well as director, author, producer, and editor of the film) undergoes a strange experiment: nourishing himself day and night EXCLUSIVELY at McDonald's across half of America, recording the effects of food on his psyche and body, and documenting it all on 16 mm.
In short, a quirky and fun idea, a kind of 'diary/performance' prolonged for a consecutive month where our protagonist, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, subjects himself to the 'pleasures of gluttony' offered and advertised by the world's most famous Fast Food chain.

Between laughter and clinical analysis, supported by various medical specialists who assist him step by step, our hero slowly begins to deteriorate and suffer from hypertension, high triglycerides, hyperglycemia in the blood, cholesterol through the roof, prolonged diarrhea, fat increase, enlarged liver, and a thousand other pathologies consequential to the 'perverse diet' the 33-year-old American director undergoes (with a good dose of masochism truly not enviable!). Perverse to the point that he must suspend the treatment (and filming) to avoid irreparable consequences on his health!

An agile, fast film, at times truly amusing but at the same time tremendous and sharp in tackling the problem of INCORRECT nutrition, a matter highly felt and a real obsession in the United States where the percentage of obesity is reaching 40% of the population.
An 'uncomfortable' film, often accused of fundamental inaccuracies (especially by McDonald's itself, which attempted to block its distribution several times, suing its author in a lawsuit that seems still ongoing) that follows the long wave of denunciation films, revitalized by the success of Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine' from a few years earlier.
This film really makes us think and repeatedly invites us to:
- Not take everything that advertising indoctrinates us with as gospel
- Learn to read the information regarding what we introduce into our body in the form of food
- Distrust a certain 'youthful and trendy lifestyle'
- Learn to savor slowness, the taste, and the flavor of foods made and cooked with devotion and care
- Take with a grain of salt everything that 'emerges' from the marketing offices of any Multinational
- Try things before blindly believing in them (even if this last point is not advisable to be applied literally to all things in life, eh?)

A film that, despite everything (significant flaws in rhythm and editing are not lacking), still won the award for best direction at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago and grossed almost 100 times the costs invested to produce it. It makes one wonder: how much will this crazy director have to fork out to the American Giant if he loses the ongoing lawsuit? Better to pretend nothing happened and hope for him that it all ends "a tarallucci e vino?", maybe at a nice 'classic' Italian restaurant with a proper menu they might take an hour to serve them but, can we compare the difference?!