Netflix have added The Founder, the acclaimed biographical drama about the creation of the McDonald’s restaurant chain, to its UK library.
Written by Robert Siegel (Pam & Tommy, The Wrestler) and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), the movie stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, a travelling milkshake machine salesman in the ’50s.
Through his line of work, he meets Richard and Maurice McDonald (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) – two brothers running a burger operation in South California named McDonald’s.
Impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and seeing franchise potential, Kroc becomes involved in the business – eventually manoeuvring himself into a position where he is able to take the company from the siblings and create a multi-billion dollar empire.
Also featuring among its cast B.J. Novak, Laura Dern, Linda Cardellini and Patrick Wilson, The Founder was released in 2016 and was received very positively by critics, earning particular praise for Keaton’s compelling lead turn and the movie’s sharp exploration of the American Dream and capitalism.
Boasting an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score, you can read some of those glowing reviews right here:
Chicago Sun-Times: “It’s a great slice of Americana… with Keaton embodying everything admirable and not so admirable and despicable about Ray Kroc’s climb to the top of Hamburger Mountain. It’s some of Keaton’s finest work.”
The Independent: “It is a surprisingly nuanced and barbed look at the American Dream and its flip side.”
Times “The man, played with dark relish by Michael Keaton, has the fabulous name of Ray Kroc (there is a suitably reptilian air to his grin as he says things such as: “Contracts are like hearts. They’re made to be broken”).”
Variety: “It’s the dash of pickle in Robert Siegel’s script – a streak of sour, cheek-puckering cynicism amid its warmer, blander conventions – that gives The Founder its mojo.”
Vox: “Keaton’s performance as Ray is what keeps The Founder moving, his affected accent and aw-shucks demeanour slowly morphing into something more calculating and even, perhaps, sinister.”
The Founder is streaming on Netflix in the UK now.
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