After first hearing about the release of The Founder in early 2016 and watching the trailer, I immediately put Michael Keaton in the running for a Best Actor nomination. Keaton has given noteworthy performances in his recent roles in the last two Best Picture winners: Birdman and Spotlight making him deserving of Oscar recognition. His role in The Founder is no different. As the year progressed, the release date moved around more often than Eli Manning throws interceptions during New York Giants football games. Was the film that bad? Was Keaton terrible in the film? After screening The Founder this past weekend, I am dumbfounded by The Weinstein Company’s lack of push for Michael Keaton in the Best Actor category. The Founder is a showcase for Keaton as he continues his streak of outstanding performances and film choices. Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc The Founder is based on the true story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois who was failing miserably at selling milkshake machines. On a phone call with his secretary, he was told that 6 machines had been sold. Shocked by the sale, he decided to take a trip to meet the buyers Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who were running a burger joint in 1950s Southern California known by everyone today as McDonald’s. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw the potential to franchise the fast food operation. The film chronicles Kroc’s maneuvering into a position to be able to pull the company out from under the brothers, creating a multi-billion dollar empire. The Founder channels The Social Network in its portrayal of its lead. As with Mark Zuckerberg’s portrayal by Jessie Eisenberg, Ray Kroc in The Founder is an anti-hero, chasing the American Dream with no concern about who he steps on in the process to become successful. Another similarity is how Kroc takes credit for the idea of McDonald’s when the franchises expand and the brand gains momentum across the country. The Social Network showed how Zuckerberg ran with the Winklevoss brothers idea of the Harvard Connection. Zuckerberg eventually creates The Facebook and turning it into the social networking giant it is today just as Kroc made McDonald’s what it is. The Founder showcases exactly how McDonald’s was never Kroc’s idea, yet Kroc’s persistence leads him to make his dreams happen in making the company larger than life. Shown through the exceptional performance of Keaton, who once again steals the show and brings his Keaton-esque charm to the big screen. Kroc is nothing short of a scumbag, but Keaton’s performance makes it difficult at times to not to root for him. Essentially, The Founder is a lesson on how to succeed in business, for better or for worse. Left: Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald | Right: John Caroll Lynch as Maurice “Mac” MacDonald John Caroll Lynch and Nick Offerman bring a sadness to their portrayal of the McDonald brothers. Lynch, best known for his most recent work as Twisty the clown on American Horror Story, is the gullible brother who puts full trust into Kroc, never doubting his intentions until it’s too late. Offerman is the ying to Lynch’s yang, cynical and never fully trusting of Kroc. They worked well as a dynamic duo in the film providing solid chemistry that when the finale arrives, it is difficult not to feel bad for them. Two men who are trying to achieve their dreams, who eventually fall victim to Kroc due to their lack of vision and risk, never seeing the same potential Kroc saw in the company. While the film is informative and damn entertaining, it is not without its flaws. At times, the film feels that is out of context, filling in spaces with archival footage and an over-reliance on montages to speed the story along. Regardless of that, The Founder is a great look at the “Golden Arches” everyone knows and love, but until this film, hardly knew how they got there.

Aquí tenemos la historia de como Ray Kroc descubre el innovador sistema de los hermanos McDonald y decide convertirlo en una franquicia nacional. Con ambición imparable, transforma el negocio… pero a un alto costo para quienes lo crearon. En los puntos positivos tenemoalla actuación de Michael Keaton que es sobresaliente, capturando perfectamente el carisma y la frialdad de Ray Kroc. La película explica de forma clara y entretenida el origen de una de las marcas más famosas del mundo. Buen ritmo narrativo y una ambientación de época muy cuidada. En los puntos negativos tenemos que en algunos momentos la historia puede sentirse dura o incómoda debido al comportamiento del protagonista. El enfoque se inclina más hacia Ray Kroc, dejando menos explorados a los hermanos McDonald. Puede generar la sensación de que faltan más detalles sobre el impacto cultural posterior. Un drama sólido y bien actuado que muestra cómo la ambición puede construir un imperio… y también destruir relaciones.

A brilliant telling of a bleak story that left a disappointing flavor in my soul. I remember the plaque in our Mcdonald's growing up about its founder, Ray Kroc, but this movie tells a much different story. Suddenly, I am questioning whether or not I should let my two-year-old eat McDonald's anymore! Michael Keaton's relentless portrayal of the opportunistic and duplicitous Ray Kroc is so spectacular that I questioned whether I even liked Keaton. Yet, he is one of my favorite actors! That is just how disheartening the true story of McDonald's' meteoric expansion is. The Founder does an excellent job telling a dispiriting story and does such a thorough job that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the end (pun intended 😉).

I am always eager to watch movies which are inspired from real events, specifically if it’s about brands/products which I love. Spoiler Alert!! The story captures the journey of Mr. Ray Kroc, who is more of a sales person selling milkshake machines and how he ends up getting to run one of the most successful QSR companies in the world, “McDonalds”. The story may come out to be dull for some folks who are used to surprises in movies, or some twist in movies. But there are some major life lessons which can actually be taken from the movie. 1. Persistence pays off - We can see Mr. Kroc’s quality of being persistent at a lot of instances throughout the movie. Be it to persuade the Mc. Donald’s brothers to give him franchising opportunity, persuading people to believe in the product and getting them to take franchising opportunities. All in all, it do shows that persistence pays off eventually. 2. As a founder or founders of a company, you are so self ingrained into your company, that you often overlook opportunities to make it big, and aren’t ready for change which itself becomes a barrier. The McDonalds brothers could have made it big but they were happy with just one outlet, having the fear of others ruining their reputation. The best part of them not even knowing why the company struck. “The Name” as mentioned by Mr. Kroc towards the end of the story. 3. Strangers can be saviours if you are open to listening. Had Mr. Kroc not given his ears to the banker, he wouldn’t have known about the real estate idea, and probably would have struggled and gone bankrupt trying to make money through franchising. As a founder, be open to feedback/suggestions from folks. It can be anyone. You never know what suggestions may struck gold for you.