TIFF 2017 Review: SUPERSIZE ME: HOLY CHICKEN! Doesn’t Cock It Up

It was way back in 2004 that a tall, lanky man made himself the subject of a documentary about fast food culture. It was a simpler time, where YouTube was being littered by doofuses doing dumb things to their bodies, and Jackass films were all the rage. Joining the fray, Morgan Spurlock took it upon himself to showcase the health and psychological costs of eating this cuisine three meals a day for thirty days.

Supersize me would go on to be a phenomenon, raking in tens of millions of dollars and making it one of the most successful documentaries of all time, at least from the box office perspective. It received an Oscar nomination and some serious critical acclaim. It also, of course, received plenty of derision, not only for those who found the rigour of his regiment lacking, but also derided the simplistic way that the “experiment” was articulated.

Since then Spurlock has made a career of making both populist films in cinemas (his Comic-Con doc is a hoot) and also plenty of television works. His last film, Rats, is a pseudo-horror doc that played Midnight Madness at TIFF.

All that’s to say that while Spurlock often has a recognizable shtick, he’s also managed to mature as a filmmaker, not simply repeating the beats of his first film. Which is why the arrival of Supersize Me 2: Holy Chicken! seemed on the surface a bit redundant – what was he going to do, binge on Wendy’s this time? Yet what he does here is pretty fascinating, and for his built-in audience, they’ll find plenty to enjoy about this latest film.

For the sequel, Spurlock dives into the nuts and bolts of the fast food industry, tracing the marketing experts, test kitchens and PR consultants that craft our cuisine. His decision is to focus on the most popular protein in American restaurants, chicken, and illustrates for viewers everything from the purchase of chicks right up through the application of artificial grill marks on his finished product.

Superficially the film feels breezy, with bouncy music and cutesy animation, but this may be all the more effective for the casual documentary viewer. To its credit, the film isn’t simply an infomercial for Spurlock himself, with the film going to great lengths to illustrate the stories of his farmer partners, those who help him with his messaging and so on. The culmination of his work, from the “Morganic” farm to the opening of his Holy Chicken! Restaurant is a mix of performance art project, marketing exercise, public demonstration of the machinations of an industry, and, perhaps, the start of an entirely new franchising opportunity.

While the film does dance around some of the more complicated and nuanced areas, it’s a far more insightful work that the original that was far more stunt than substance. For many, the vertically integrated companies that control the chicken industry will be new, as will the lawsuits and acrimony between farmers and the companies that ostensibly control from feed to slaughter what they produce.

Spurlock sees himself as a truth teller, and his restaurant is littered with slogans that are undercut by their own messaging. As a work of media literacy, it’s probably even more important, allowing people to see through some of the most benign of messaging manipulations (“crispy” instead of “fried”, say) in order to make better choices. But what the film equally illustrates is that given the choice between healthy and tasty the American palate almost always chooses the latter, and even an irony-filled resto simply becomes itself a place where people who, though given the messaging, will still seek out something tasty.

Supersize Me 2 is a morsel that’s quick, convenient and with enough substance to be filling, but hardly the stuff or artisanal fare. And that’s fine, as not every doc needs to be a meal as rich as The Act of Killing in order to have an impact. This is fast food cinema, tasty enough and well prepared, a far better dish than the original, and sure to be snacked upon by a large audience.