{image1}Even though we can pretty much tell how "Super Size Me" is going to go, it's fun, fascinating and frightening getting there.
In the spirit of Michael Moore's film and the book "Fast Food Nation," Morgan Spurlock takes us on a journey into American fast food culture. But he's not just looking on, he's put himself in the picture.
That's because after consulting with three doctors of various stripes, a fitness expert and a nutritionist, Spurlock -- who begins the film with the picture of health -- undertakes a 30-day, McDonald's-only diet. The results are hardly surprising, although the extent of the results are a little astonishing.
Spurlock's girlfriend is a vegan chef and is skeptical, as you might assume, and although the experiment appears to put a bit of strain on their relationship, even she sticks by him.
And this support is necessary because not only does Spurlock's health begin to plummet, but his spirits wane, too, at times. The diet of Egg McMuffins and Big Macs saps his energy and his sex drive, piles on the pounds, jolts his cholesterol and begins to destroy his liver.
And this is with fewer than 10 super size meals (he only "upgrades" if the cashier asks him to and, in fact, on the first super sizing, he loses his lunch because he's unaccustomed to eating so much).
Spurlock visits McDonald's all over the place: New York City (where there are roughly four locations per square mile In Manhattan), Los Angeles, Texas and beyond. He requests nutrition information without, in most cases, finding any.
He visits school cafeterias, interviews the food lobby and a range of experts -- from former surgeons general to nutritionists to class action attorneys -- to try and figure out what makes us fat Americans so addicted to fast food. But he finds out for himself as he realizes that when his diet has robbed him of his vitality, the only times he feels good is when he's munching McNuggets.
The not-so-subtle film features such fine moments as footage of Ronald McDonald and his playland cohorts with Curtis Mayfield's "Pusher Man" as the soundtrack. There's great scene-setting paintings by an artist who specializes in demonic renditions of fast food spokes-characters.
For the record, and this is in no way really a spoiler, since it's pretty obvious, Spurlock's diet adds 25 pounds to his waistline and ups his cholesterol by 65 points. His body fat morphs from a lean 11 percent to a less impressive 18 percent.
In the face of all this bad news, Spurlock's dedication to the experiment ranks him up there with De Niro, who used a similar diet in his attempt to bring Jake LaMotta to the screen in "Raging Bull."
"Super Size Me" opens Friday, May 21 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
