The Founder (2016)

Jack and I enjoyed the story of Ray Kroc's setting in motion the McDonald's empire, from its good acting to its wonderful set design and great picture cars, to its script that's not very flattering to the lead. Michael Keaton (last blogged for Spotlight) gives quite the tour de force, taking Kroc from his desperate days as a failing restaurant supply salesman to his determination and ruthlessness leading him to success. As the McDonald brothers who actually founded the first fast food restaurant in the country, Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch (most recently in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Jackie, respectively) play it straight and right to the point. Characters played by Laura Dern (last in Certain Women), B.J. Novak (Saving Mr. Banks), Patrick Wilson (after I wrote about him in Young Adult he was in ten episodes of Fargo, among other things), and Linda Cardellini (covered in Welcome to Me), and more, all participate along the way.

Director John Lee Hancock (profiled in Saving Mr. Banks) works here from an original screenplay by Robert D. Siegel (wrote The Wrestler and Big Fan and directed the latter), which was on the 2014 Black List of the best unproduced scripts of that year.

Production Designer Michael Corenblith (Oscar-nominated for Apollo 13 (1995) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and nominated by his peers in the Art Directors Guild for the latter as well as Frost/Nixon, the TV movie Game Change, and Saving Mr. Banks, his resumé also includes Edtv (1999) and Dinner for Schmucks) shows us the 1950s just as we remember it (the anachronisms listed on imdb didn't bother us one bit).

Carter Burwell's (last in these pages for scoring The Family Fang) pleasant soundtrack can be streamed in its entirety from this link and you can read the list of source music songs here.

AARP's three nominations put this movie on the list of award winners and nominees. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 82% each. We liked it. You can wait for the small screen but it's good.