Entertainment
Netflix Blocks Michael Keaton’s Delicious 115-Minute McDonald’s Origin Story for Certain Users
In recent years, there have been several movies about the origins of popular American products. Apple released a film about Beanie Babies a few years ago, which means that we can probably expect a film about Labubus soon. Hulu released a movie about Cheetos, titled Flamin’ Hot, while Jerry Seinfeld directed an absurdist comedy about Pop-Tarts for Netflix, titled Unfrosted. This year, John Cena will star in The Matchbox Movie, which was probably green-lit because of the culture-defining success of Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie. This trend began a decade ago, with a movie that traced the origins of McDonald’s. Unlike Barbie, which positioned itself as a feminist fable, or even Flamin’ Hot, which highlighted the contributions of the immigrant population, the McDonald’s movie had fewer layers than a Big Mac. It was, quite literally, about how an ambitious businessman took a mom-and-pop operation and turned it into a massive corporation. The ambitious businessman was, in fact, the protagonist of the story and not the villain.
The businessman was played by Michael Keaton, who had been freshly nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Birdman. The film also featured Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch as brothers Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald, who created an assembly line of sorts that significantly reduced the time it took to cook burgers. Impressed by their operation, salesman Ray Kroc (Keaton) urged them to create franchises before buying them out some years later. The movie was directed by John Lee Hancock, who previously made the war film The Alamo, and has since directed the “copaganda” movie The Highwaymen and the Se7en rip-off The Little Things.
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Here’s the Pro-Capitalism Movie that Netflix Has Blocked for Capitalist Reasons
The movie in question is The Founder, which grossed $24 million worldwide against a reported budget of $25 million. It earned solid reviews and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 80% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “The Founder puts Michael Keaton’s magnetic performance at the center of a smart, satisfying biopic that traces the rise of one of America’s most influential businessmen — and the birth of one of its most far-reaching industries.” The movie also featured B.J. Novak, Laura Dern, and Linda Cardellini. However, it is among the 140 titles that Netflix has restricted access to this month for subscribers to its ad-supported tier.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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December 16, 2016
- Runtime
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115 Minutes
- Director
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John Lee Hancock
- Writers
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Robert D. Siegel