Eating has become more and more difficult in the 21st century. Food isn't always the wondrous, romantic thing depicted in most movies. Recently we have learned about MSG, GMOs, polyunsaturated fats, trans-fats and the presence of the horrid "high fructose corn syrup" in just about everything. (It's in bread. Bread!) Sales of organic foods have increased drastically, and everyone has become an ingredient-reader and an amateur foodie. Now multiply this by about fifteen and you've got Thanksgiving dinner. Who's a vegetarian? Who's a vegan? Who's on the Atkins diet? Does putting the stuffing inside the turkey actually make it poisonous? Were those slivered almonds made on machinery that also processed peanuts? Who's allergic? What's the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? To get yourself prepared, I've assembled a chronological list of food cautionary tales, or hard culinary lessons learned.

Soylent Green (1973)
Is there anyone out there who doesn't yet know the secret component of everyone's favorite future foodstuff? If not, watching this film, directed by Richard Fleischer, will make you want to read the ingredients more often.

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
The key scene in Luis Bunuel's film takes place at a dinner party. Guests gather around the table, pull down their pants and sit on toilets. They talk, rifle through magazines and otherwise engage in casual conversation. One guest rises, politely excuses himself and shyly asks for the dining room. Once inside, he shuts the door and begins eating. That's really funny, and in the joke, Bunuel asks why we perform one bodily function with great dignity in public and another with shame in private. As humans, our beliefs and behavior are utterly arbitrary. Try not to think about that at the dinner table.

While Fast Food Nation might have gotten lost in the Bond - Penguin showdown of last weekend stories about the ugly side of the food business seem to be alive and well in a documentary by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. Both filmmakers made the decision to tackle the subject matter a little differently, Richard Linklater made a narrative film and Geryhalter made what sounds like the Koyaanisqatsi of food production.

The New York Times has a profile on Nikolaus Geyrhalter's film Our Daily Bread premiering this Friday in New York. The film was a success when it screened at the New York Film Festival, but there has not been any word of a wider release. The film focuses on the mechanized side of food production and the loss of connection to the tradition of farming in the new factory-style system. Geyrhalter's film does not use traditional interview segments and voice-overs; instead the film uses pure visuals to get the point across.

Considering Geyrhalter has made a film that is half abstract art film, and half documentary, the film might have trouble finding an audience in either camp. It also might be possible that audiences are becoming overwhelmed by all the bad news in documentary film lately, and when it comes to what's on our dinner plates, is it just easier to tune it all out?

How do you take a book that's non-fiction and make a fictional movie about it? Real-life stories are made into movies all the time, of course: Erin Brockovich, The Insider, All the President's Men -- all took real events and made them into films. But Fast Food Nation, the book, is not a story about a person. It's a painstakingly researched documentation of the history of the fast food industry and California car culture, and their collective impact on the way entire industries are run, the way people eat, and the way their food is produced. How to translate the vast amount of information Eric Schlosser presented in his book nearly a decade ago into a cohesive fictional film? The answer: It's not easy.

Schlosser's book, which started out as an article for Rolling Stone as a behind-the-scenes look at fast food, covered everything from suburban sprawl and changes in the meat industry destroying the American rancher; the meat-packing industry morphing from a crappy, but well-paid job with union benefits, into a crappy, poorly paid job with no benefits, mostly occupied now by illegal immigrants; teens becoming an underpaid and easily exploited workforce; and the rise of an entire industry marketing to children. The heart and soul of Schlosser's book is the focus on the plight of illegal immigrants -- a topic dear to his heart, as he previously spent a year following immigrant migrant farm workers for an article for The Atlantic on illegal immigration and its relationship with the produce industry. Schlosser's passion for this facet of the fast food industry comes across clearly in the book, and in the film adaptation, it's the segment imbued with the most passion as well.

Corporate interests have been protected, thank God, from the threat of an actual issue being presented in the form of a message at Willie Nelson's Farm Aid this coming Saturday. Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation will not be shown, because the film does not fit in among performances by Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Is Farm Aid's, uh, beef with the film an aesthetic one? Our own Mr. Rocchi found the movie incomplete-feeling, a somewhat unstructured work. Or could it be that a quick scroll down the Farm Aid page reveals that Chipotle is a sponsor, and Chipotle is 90% owned by McDonald's? I've been unable to track down any comment on the decision beyond an incompatibility of 'messages,' but this feels as lame to you as it does to me, right? I mean, family farmers care about the quality of beef and improving the consumer's perception of the American beef insdustry, right? (And I acknowledge that the point of Farm Aid is to bring aid to poor family farmers, so one has to respect the sponsors, but that doesn't mean this is a good decision. Blech.)

I couldn't wait to read Peter Biskind's Down & Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and The Rise of Independent Film when it first hit the bookstore shelves -- but I was at Sundance at the time and (curiously enough) you couldn't find a copy of the thing anywhere up there! I knew going into the book -- which includes some pretty scathing swipes at both Miramax overlord Harvey Weinstein and Sundance cowboy Robert Redford -- would be half true and half sensationalistic-ish ... but obviously I'd never be able to tell the one from the other. Overall it's a very fun read if you're a diehard movie geek, but doesn't come close to the author's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, which is one of my very favorite books.

So get this: Much like someone (Richard Linklater, actually) took Eric Schlosser's non-fiction tome Fast Food Nation and turned it into a "traditional" movie, director Ken Bowser (he directed the excellent doco based on ERRB) and screenwriter Dean Craig have acquired the right to turn Biskind's book into a narrative feature. How one would turn a collection of Indie Hollywood's war stories into a three-act piece of amusing fiction remains to be seen -- but I know it's a movie that I'll want to see!

Unlike myself, Mr. Bowser has no problems at all seeing Down & Dirty Pictures as a straight comedy: "You couldn't make these guys up. They're like offensive linemen rampaging across the fields of Sundance sacking anyone who gets in their way, while the handsome movie star owner of the stadium smiles benevolently down on his charges. If that's not a movie, I don't know what is." Ha! Something tells me that The Weinstein Co. won't be picking this flick up for distribution -- nor will it be playing at Sundance anytime soon.

Odds and ends from Thursday:

• Man, Josh Brolin is keeping himself busy lately. Hot off films like No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers) and Grind House (Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino), the young actor has just been cast in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, now filming in New York. Damn, talk about a trio of directors to work with back-to-back-to-back -- someone made a birthday wish that came true. Brolin will take on the role of corrupt narcotics investigator, Detective Trupo. Also starring in the film are Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington.
• Night club owner, real estate entrepreneur and movie producer -- it's all in a day's work for Sam Nazarian. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Nazarian has purchased the spec script, College, penned by first time scribes Dan Callahan and Adam Ellison. Pic (which boasts the most original title, like, ever), is apparently about three high school seniors who enjoy one wild and crazy weekend while visiting a nearby college. So, basically, it's PCU with two additional main characters.
• Fox Searchlight has decided to push back the release date of Fast Food Nation, one of this fall's more controversial films. Instead of opening on October 20, the Richard Linklater flick (which James kind of liked when he reviewed it at Cannes) will now open on November 17. At this time, there doesn't appear to be a reason behind the move.

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Paul Dano, a crucial component in the wonderful ensemble cast of Little Miss Sunshine. In the film, Paul plays Dwayne; an extremely angry Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted into the Air Force Academy. Paul crashed onto the independent film scene in a big way when he starred as a young boy "involved" with a much older man in Michael Cuesta's directorial debut, L.I.E. Since then, Paul has gone on to star in films like The Girl Next Door, Taking Lives and The Ballad of Jack and Rose.

Most recently, he's had the chance to work with director Richard Linklater on the upcoming Fast Food Nation, as well as helped voice a Wild Thing in Spike Jonze's big-screen adaptation of the popular children's book, Where the Wild Things Are. Paul had a lot to say. So did I. Check it out:

Cinematical: How did you first get involved with Little Miss Sunshine?

Paul Dano: It was a long time ago, like three and a half years ago. I met with John (Dayton) and Valerie (Faris), the directors, and auditioned for the movie. At that point, they were trying to get it made. It went well, we talked and it seemed like they really wanted me to do the movie. And I really wanted to do the movie – it was a wonderful script. And then the movie kept getting pushed, kept getting pushed. And I live in New York, so whenever I was out in LA, I would say hi to them (Jonathan and Valerie), grab coffee, that sort of thing. A few years go by, I'm thinking maybe I'm too old or too tall, and luckily, it just got made. Another year later and who knows if I would have been fitting for the part. It boggles me this movie took so long to get made because the script was brilliant.

I'm not sure how many times I've eaten fast food in my lifetime. I would guess the actual number would at least be in the hundreds, if not thousands. Scary, ain't it? However, I know, that each and every time I shove a McDonald's hamburger into my mouth, there's a chance I would be utterly grossed out if I knew every detail of the gritty journey that burger took on its way into my stomach.

Though Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation isn't due to hit theaters until the fall, its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival is already conjuring up thoughts of protests and controversy. McDonald's has prepared a fierce campaign against the ideas presented in the film, just as it did after Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. While Spurlock's documentary caused damage to the fast food industry, all but eliminating the super-size option and forcing chains to provide a healthier menu, he was but one man on the outside of an enormous monster. Fast Food Nation, although fictionalized for the screen, will delve much deeper and certainly has the potential to significantly damage the Happy Meal.

But is it worth it? There's obviously a demand for fast food throughout the world and, ever since Spurlock's adventure, the industry really has made a conscious effort to step up the health factor. Look, the point's been made -- eat this stuff at your own risk. We know this. We understand it. Is there more to say?

So, I ask you: Should we or should we not just leave the fast food industry alone?

Obsession. What does it mean, why does it happen and why can't we stop it? I never asked Burger King to invent chicken fries, but now that they're here, those delicious little fried pieces of heaven have destroyed my life. Now, every time I pass by a Burger King, I must stop in and grab an order of chicken fries. Even if I just had some the day before, I wonder, "What if there's a new dipping sauce and others have tasted it before me? What if this new dipping sauce is only out for one day? What if I miss this golden opportunity?"

I'm sure there are other chicken fry addicts out there who feel my pain. And, trust me, it's okay to come forward -- we need your support. However, the need to consume fast food constantly is only one type of obsession. We can obsess over people, places, events -- I know one person obsessed with a chair. Don't ask.

This week, we're taking a look at films that have themes of obsession running through their veins. Though I'm not sure whether or not we'll become obssessed with these films once we've watched them, I will admit that, after staring at those fries in the picture above, I'm suddenly craving, um, you know. Welcome to another fantastic edition of Trailer Park:

When Eric Schlosser's nonfiction book Fast Food Nation was released, Schlosser's journalistic skills and passionate-yet-well-structured arguments made it a best-seller; perhaps it stung a bit when Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me made it to theaters hot on the heels of Fast Food Nation -- stealing a certain amount of Schlosser's thunder and owing a very strong debt to Schlosser's work. Fast-forward a few years and Fast Food Nation gets to come to the big screen -- not as a documentary, but instead as fiction. Directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Schlosser, Fast Food Nation follows a group of characters -- workers, suppliers, executives, patrons -- through the fast-food economy. The stories and characters occasionally intersect and often diverge; as some at Cannes said at Fast Food Nation's debut, think of it as Traffic with meat.

As workers roll out the famous red carpet, and attendees dust off their formal wear, the Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson has a great write up on the market at Cannes, which she characterizes as a "seller's market". Most of the films with big buzz, Thompson reports, already have distrib going into the fest, leaving hungry buyers scouring the lesser known films, hoping to find that perfect film. Cannes, Thompson says, has "plenty of world class cinema on view -- but prcious little commercial titles to buy."

The list of buzzed-about films already with distrib is pretty long, from Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette (I'm still not sure about the wisdom of casting Kirsten Dunst in the title role in this film, but I'll withhold my judgment until I get to see the film firsthand), Pedro Almodovars' hotly-anticiapted Volver, Babel, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, and Richard Linklater's Cannes duel entries - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly.

There are, of course, a slew of lesser known films without distribution from a major house, but which, if any, of those films might end up getting picked up is anyone's guess at this point. Warner Independent acquistions exec Paul Federbush, who also kept a low profile at Sundance, told Thompson he only has two films on his priority radar, and other buyers seem equally cautious at this point, holding out to see which films will generate the most buzz. As Thompson notes, there are a lot of good foreign films at Cannes, but American audiences haven't been coming out in droves to see foreigns lately, which is too damn bad, because it means that distribs will be understandably cautious about investing in bringing some really good films stateside.

A 10-year contract between Disney and McDonald's is about to expire ... and The Mouse House has no real interest in continuing the relationship. Yes, synergy-fans, sad but true: Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald are getting a divorce -- and you can thank all the fat little children they created together.

A recent (and rather excellent) article in the L.A. Times indicates that the New Disney (now with added Pixar!) wants nothing more to do with the deep-fried fat-making that's made McDonald's a corporation wealthy enough to purchase the sun. Thanks to people like Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), the population of Earth seems to have (just now) realized that, hey, fast food is pretty rotten for your insides ... especially if you're a three-year-old kid who couldn't care less about nutrition but realllllly wants that stupid little plastic Narnia keychain.

Plus it looks like DreamWorks has signed a deal to hawk Shrek 3 under the Golden Arches, and one would assume Mickey doesn't exactly dig that relationship. DisneyCo will undoubtedly lose a very healthy revenue stream with this divorce, but it looks like Steve Jobs & Co. are looking to improve Disney's image just a bit ... and it's about time.

It's the last day to toss in your input on our new name, so get to it. Otherwise, today's show has a recap of the Cannes lineup, and news regarding Woody Allen, Julia Roberts, and films new in theaters.

Get the podcast
[Watch] Online (please make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime for best results).
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Cinematical Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator to have all of Cinematical's rich content delivered automatically.

Hosts
Karina Longworth

Editor
Randall Bennett

Music
Love as Laughter - I'm a bee

Format
4:26, 28.6 MB

Program
00:00 - Cannes film fest listings released
01:22 - Woody Allen pulling out of Paris, back to London for him
02:40 - Give Julia Roberts some credit for hitting the stage, since no one else is
03:37 - What's poppin' at your local cinema

The big cheeses at Cannes just revealed the competition slate for this year's festival, and it turns out that most of the rumors were true. Among the high-profile films competing for top honors will be Pedro Almodovar's Volver, Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette, Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, and Nanni Moretti The Caiman.

Screening out of competition (in addition to the previously-announced titles) will be Johnnie To's Election 2, which just had its premiere at the Hong Kong International Festival and was very well received.

The full list is after the jump.

As New York frantically prepares for the arrival of Tom Cruise (by speedboat, no less!), McDonald's has bigger (Filet O') fish to fry. Also: felons are getting their Fiddy, and Fred Durst is totally getting his directorial debut on, beeyotch.

Get the podcast
[Watch] Online (please make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime for best results).
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Cinematical Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator to have all of Cinematical's rich content delivered automatically.

Hosts
Karina Longworth

Editor
Randall Bennett

Music
Love as Laughter - I'm a bee

Format
5:30, 32 MB, MPEG4 (iPod / PSP compatible)

Program
00:00 - Cruise is coming to town!
02:04 - Bizkit's Durst sez' he's the next Scorsese
02:49 - McDonalds preparing Fast Food Nation counterattack
03:52 - While Brokeback ain't fit for prisons, 50 Cent's masterpiece apparently is