Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

The Founder is about the creation of McDonalds, if not necessarily about the founders of McDonalds. Those would be the McDonald brothers, not Ray Kroc, the salesman who turned their creation into a world-changing commercial juggernaut. Michael Keaton dominates this movie, just as Kroc did the McDonalds.

Keaton’s characteristically intense performance as Kroc propels this terrific biopic. It’s a well rounded tale of entrepreneurship, being both a fascinating b-school case study and a penetrating character study,

First the McDonald brothers stripped down the drive-in restaurant to its essential parts: Lose the car hops, lose the waitresses, lose the plates and silverware. People ate out of the wrappers in which their food was served. Lose everything on the menu but the top sellers, which turned out to be burgers, fries, sodas and shakes. Industrially engineer the kitchen so a full meal can be provided in 30 seconds. We take all this for granted now, but it was revolutionary when the McDonalds invented it in San Bernardino in the Fifties, and is especially well recreated in The Founder.

Then Ray Kroc did to franchising what the McDonald brothers did to the restaurant experience. He reengineered it. It’s fascinating to watch him discover who made good franchisees (hard-working married couples who were yet to be financially comfortable), and ultimately how to finance and control the whole operation. The secret was to own the land and rent it to franchisees. Thus begat the fast food revolution!

The personal toll of entrepreneurship makes the movie very affecting, and rings true to anyone experienced in running a business or involved with an ambitious startup. Super-sized with a classic Michael Keaton performance, The Founder is a robustly satisfying cinematic experience, albeit far from a Happy Meal.

Acting - Great 4.0

Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc like a super-sized Willie Loman, only this salesman succeeded in the end. Keaton’s quicksilver expressions capture every tick, tone and transition of the mercurial magnate.

• Nick Offerman & John Carroll Lynch are terrific as the McDonalds, Dick & Mac. Offerman’s clipped delivery perfectly captures Dick’s engineering-like demeanor, while Lynch’s big softie makes for a genuinely heartbreaking character.
• Linda Cardellini is sharply attuned to her surrounds as the future Joan Kroc. Patrick Wilson is his usual genial self as her first husband.
• B. J. Novak easily conveys the business acumen carried by Harry J. Sonneborn, the financial genius behind the McDonalds Corporation.
• Laura Dern is mature and winsome as Ray Kroc’s first wife.
• Justin Randell Brooke underwhelms as McDonalds mucky-muck Fred Turner.
• Kate Kneeland also underwhelms as McDonalds mucky-muck June Martino.

Film - Great 4.0

The Founder starts off like Death of a Salesman, before progressing into a celebration of commercial ferment and then closing on the costs of success. It’s a compelling journey that makes deft use of parallelisms, flashbacks and set-pieces.

The parallelisms focus on Ray Kroc’s various pitches throughout his career. First come failed pitches as he searches for what today is called product-market fit. And then successful pitches once he gets a killer offering to pitch and learns who will respond. But his pitch remains largely the same.

The flashbacks illustrate the characters’ previous failures and breakthroughs. The McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc were middle-aged at the story’s start, so each have considerable backstories.

The most notable set-piece shows how the McDonald brothers industrially engineered their kitchen by running through a series of simulations, held on a tennis court!

Edge - Tame 1.2

Reality - Glib 1.2

The Founder only claims to be “based on a true story”, but apparently takes relatively few reality liberties. History vs. Hollywood on The Founder has more on those.

Reality liberties aside, The Founder is worthy addition to other great biopics about great entrepreneurs.

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