The film received mixed reviews . Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicates that the film has an approval rating of 50 % , based on 148 reviews , with an average score of 5.7 / 10 . The site 's consensus states , " Despite some fine performances and memorable scenes , '' Fast Food Nation '' is more effective as Eric Schlosser 's eye-opening non-fiction book than as Richard Linklater 's fictionalized , mostly punchless movie . " A. O. Scott of '' The New York Times '' said about the film , " while it does not shy away from making arguments and advancing a clear point of view , is far too rich and complicated to be understood as a simple , high-minded polemic . It is didactic , yes , but it 's also dialectical . While the climactic images of slaughter and butchery — filmed in an actual abattoir — may seem intended to spoil your appetite , Mr. Linklater and Mr. Schlosser have really undertaken a much deeper and more comprehensive critique of contemporary American life ... The movie does not neglect the mute , helpless suffering of the cows , but it also acknowledges the status anxiety of the managerial class , the aspirations of the working poor ( legal and otherwise ) and the frustrations of the dreaming young . It 's a mirror and a portrait , and a movie as necessary and nourishing as your next meal . " Peter Travers of '' Rolling Stone '' awarded the film three out of four stars and added , " It 's less an exposé of junk-food culture than a human drama , sprinkled with sly , provoking wit , about how that culture defines how we live ... The film is brimming with grand ambitions but trips on many of them as some characters are n't given enough screen time to register and others vanish just when you want to learn more about them . " Ruthe Stein of the '' San Francisco Chronicle '' felt " for all the filmmaker 's good intentions , '' Fast Food Nation '' is n't a particularly good movie . It does n't hold together or grip you the way a documentary might have . The people are sketchily drawn - just when you start to care about one of them , he or she vanishes . To get the consumer-beware message across , much of the dialogue sounds like preaching , an unnatural way to talk in what 's billed as entertainment ... But it does get its message across . You 're unlikely to leave the theater with a hankering for a fast food patty of any size . " Todd McCarthy of '' Variety '' wrote , " Richard Linklater 's rough-hewn tapestry of assorted lives that feed off of and into the American meat industry is both rangy and mangy ; it remains appealing for its subversive motives and revelations even as one wishes its knife would have been sharper ... In the end , viewers waiting for an emotional and/or dramatic payoff will be disappointed . As a call-to-arms , it 's highly sympathetic but surprisingly mild-mannered . " The film premiered In Competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on May 19 . It went into limited release in Australia on October 26 , 2006
2006 Cannes Film Festival
2006 Cannes Film Festival
Fast Food Nation (film)