The Founder -

At first glance, The Founder (2016) appears to be a classic rags-to-riches story: a struggling salesman with big dreams stumbles upon a brilliant idea and turns it into an empire. But director John Lee Hancock and writer Robert Siegel have crafted something far more unsettling—a surgical deconstruction of the American entrepreneur myth, wrapped in the familiar golden arches of McDonald’s. The Plot: From Milkshakes to Monopoly The film follows Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a down-on-his-luck traveling milkshake-machine salesman in 1950s Illinois. Peddling a five-spindle mixer to small-town diners, Kroc is nearly washed up when he receives an unusual order from a burger joint in San Bernardino, California. The restaurant, owned by the charismatic Mac and Dick McDonald (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman), has ordered eight of his mixers—a quantity Kroc can’t comprehend until he visits and witnesses something revolutionary: a “Speedee Service System” that delivers hamburgers, fries, and shakes in under 30 seconds.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of building something, the film offers a sobering question: At what point does the dream stop being yours—and at what point do you stop being the person who dreamed it? The Founder

★★★★½ (4.5/5) Recommended for: Fans of The Social Network , Wolf of Wall Street , or anyone who wants to understand why your local McDonald’s tastes exactly the same in Tokyo as it does in Tulsa. “Contracts are like hearts. They’re made to be broken.” – Ray Kroc (as portrayed in The Founder ) At first glance, The Founder (2016) appears to