10 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 24, 2004
ARTS
McDocumentary lacks passion
By Alexandra Jones
Day Arts Editor--
The Streets bring
a new twist to rap
6
MOVIE REVIEW **,
Call filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
opportunistic and self-absorbed. Say
that he ignores many issues he says
he'll address in
his new film
"Super Size Me," Super Size
and, well, you'd Me
be pretty accu- At Michigan
rate. A documen- Theater
tary on the role
fast food plays in Samuel msdwy
the American
obesity epidemic,
the movie's primary conceit seems
effective: The healthy Spurlock turns
himself into a nutritional guinea pig
by eating nothing but McDonald's
food for 30 days.
"Super Size Me" features all the
facts, figures, interviews and testi-
monials needed to convince audi-
ences that American attitudes about
food need to change - but Spur-
lock's slick, MTV-era production and
tongue-in-cheek tone undermine the
strength of this evidence, making
"Super Size Me" an ineffective non-
exploration of the problems Spurlock
purports to address, more of a bid for
notoriety than an attempt at activism.
The rules are simple: Spurlock
must eat only what is sold over the
counter at McDonald's franchises,
three squares a day, and he has to try
everything on the menu at least
once. During his month-long McDi-
et, Spurlock's health declines
sharply. He gains 20 pounds, experi-
ences shortness of breath, mood
swings, impotence, and, during the
last week of the trial, is seriously at
risk for liver failure. To his credit, he
manages to turn his own body into a
science experiment without hogging
too much camera time - but his
smirking influence shows in every
other aspect of "Super Size Me,"
from the rapid-fire editing to the
By Joel Hoard
Daily Arts Writer
6
'M' is for 'McLame.'
anti-fat (not necessarily anti-fast
food) subtext. He barely touches on
the psychological, not just biologi-
cal, effects of obesity.
Most of Spurlock's narration plays
over footage of obese people out on
the streets and on beaches, fat asses
featured and their faces digitally
blurred. A (skinny) schoolgirl buys
two bags of chips, a soft pretzel and
candy from her cafeteria's lunch line.
One segment features formerly obese
Subway spokesperson Jared Fogel
delivering a motivational speech; a
fawning, none-too-svelte-herself
mother introduces her obese teen
daughter to Jared. "The world's not
gonna change, you've got to change,"
he tells the sullen teen. The girl later
explains that it's frustrating to hear
someone who's lost weight tell her
that they can do it when she thinks
she can't - "I can't afford to go
there and buy a sandwich every day."
Good God, Morgan, you've made
your point: Americans are ignorant
when it comes to dietary health and
nutrition.
The problem with this latest indict-
ment of American culture isn't that
Spurlock forces his own opinion on
the viewer - besides health exami-
nations and mealtimes, Spurlock
stays behind the camera; it's easy to
forget that his experiment was the
film's original gimmick. His criti-
cisms of American attitudes about
food are certainly warranted. The
problem is that Spurlock doesn't have
any reason to launch this tirade
against Big Food, and it shows.
"Super Size Me" is a combination of
eye-opening statistics and gross-out
imagery - sort of like a mash-up of
Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food
Nation and MTV's "Jackass." Statis-
tics and explanations lend the appear-
ance of credibility, but there's no
drive behind Spurlock's actions.
After seeing this slickly presented,
tongue-in-cheek "indictment" of
McDonald's, how many people will
really think twice before biting into
their next burger? Spurlock's too-
cool faux-commentary and apparent
lack of empathy for his subjects over-
shadow any good intentions. (It's
doubtful Spurlock had any when he
went ahead with the project.) Hey
Morgan: Get down off your McCross
and leave this argument to the
activists who actually give a shit
about people's welfare, not just their
sound bites.
On his 2002 debut, Original
Pirate Material, British DJ/rapper
Mike Skinner (a.k.a. The Streets)
relied ' on a
dark, brooding
sound to paint The Streets
a picture of the
bleak urban A Grand Don't
wasteland he Come for Free
called home. It
exuded the Vice/Atlantic
cocky cock-
ney's cheeky,
in-your-face attitude. It was also the
first hip-hop release from Britain to
capture the attention of Stateside
listeners.
While Skinner's confidence,
along with his superb production
skills and quirky rap style, instantly
endeared the MC to many fans, his
bravura seemed like a limitation,
making the Streets' debut sound flat
at times.
Skinner corrects the problem in a
grand fashion on The Streets'
sprawling follow-up, A Grand Don't
Come for Free. The album encom-
passes a wider variety of sounds
and emotions and showcases a gen-
tler, quietly confident Skinner.
Serene tracks such as the boy-
meets-girl tale "Could Well Be In,"
the mellow love song "Wouldn't
Have It Any Other Way" and the
break-up ballad "Dry Your Eyes,"
Skinner's best song to date, are the
album's high points.
"Dry Your Eyes" in particular
shows Skinner's soft, sweet side
with simple, beautiful production
including strings and acoustic gui-
tar as well as soft-hearted, unas-
suming lyrics such as "I can't
imagine my life without you and
me / There's things I can't imagine
doing, things I can't imagine seeing
/ It weren't supposed to be easy,
surely / Please, please, I'm beg-
ging, please."
In terms of production, even A
Grand's more raucous tracks show
a more mature Skinner. "Fit But
You Know It" takes rap-rock to a n
unexplored level, combining a
jagged garage rock guitar riff and
pounding one-two drumming with
humorous lyrics chronicling Mike's
evening on the prowl at a nightclub.
"I'm not trying to pull you," he
sings. "Even though I would like to
/ I think you are really fit / You're
fit, but don't you really know it."
As with Original Pirate
Material, Skinner's rapping on A
Grand can be off-putting for unsus-
pecting listeners, especially Ameri-
can audiences. His thick accent and
quirky rhymes make for a distinc-
tive style that often sounds more
like spoken word than traditional
rapping. But once patient listeners
have cleared the hurdle of simply
getting used to Skinner's style, they
will be treated to one of the year's
best records.