The Founder – Film Review

Michael Keaton is back again this year with another great entry into his filmography. This is the story of Ray Kroc and how he was a salesman who stumbled upon the McDonald’s brothers’ restaurant while doing milkshake machine sales. He took a tour of their facility in California to showcase their brand and operation which highly appealed to Ray in the potential for big business. The performance by Michael Keaton is incredible. He commands the screen from start to finish.

The performances by Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Laura Dern and Linda Cardellini were great supporting performances. Laura Dern’s was particularly heartbreaking. I wish she was in the film more but she did such a good job with her character. I liked the chemistry between Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch — they acted like brothers who balanced each other out in ideals. I liked Linda Cardellini’s character. They didn’t do what I expected with her but the situation played out off screen rather than on screen for unnecessary repetitive drama.

There should be McDonald’s everywhere. Sea to shining sea. Let’s franchise the damn thing.

As an entrepreneur I really appreciated how the film showcased the time period on how entrepreneurship is timeless and that both similar principles apply today as they did back then. He found a weakness in his contract to be able to grow as an entrepreneur to be able to not only make profit but make smart business decisions to make the dream a reality. Though it cost him a lot and he had to be super persistent to make what he want happen — he never stopped. Keeping the quality control from place to place across the country is a tough thing to do. You gotta hire the right people to make a difference. Presentation and simplicity matter.

Overall I don’t think this film will be an Oscar contender — a great streaming option if you don’t catch it in theaters. Solid performances across the board. I hope more films like these get made to balance out all the blockbusters for palette cleansers.

8/10