The Atlantic

<em>The Founder</em> Is the Fast Food of Biopics

In a bland and forgettable new film, Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the cut-throat businessman behind the McDonald’s franchise.
Source: The Weinstein Company

Ray Kroc’s story is a distinctly American one; it’s a tale of business success marked by corporate greed, dodgy backroom deals, and an overwhelming desire for sameness. Kroc was the salesman who took a small burger restaurant in San Bernardino, California, franchised it around the country, and turned it into the McDonald’s Corporation—and he only had to disrespect the wishes of the restaurant’s actual founders to do it. It’s a rather bleak rise to prosperity, but an interesting one nonetheless, since so much of Kroc’s

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