The Founder (2016)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Ray Kroc	Michael Keaton	½
Richard "Dick" McDonald	Nick Offerman
Maurice "Mac" McDonald	John Carroll Lynch
Joan Smith	Linda Cardellini	½
Harry J. Sonneborn	B. J. Novak	-
Ethel Kroc	Laura Dern	½
Fred Turner	Justin Randell Brooke	-
June Martino	Kate Kneeland	-
Rollie Smith	Patrick Wilson	-

Review

Michael Keaton's nuanced, balanced portrait of Ray Kroc, a business man who was equal measures passionate about creating something new and selfish enough to screw over his competitors and partners propels this fun look-see at the early days of McDonald's. The film gives us a vivid, fairytalish look at the 1950s and the people populating it – a time when The American Dream was still very much alive, claim the filmmakers nostalgically. This romanticized angle creates a safe distance to view the story from, so that we don't really need to take a moral stance to it all. Still, the heartfelt performances given by Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch as the two McDonald brothers will arguably stir up some emotion in most viewers. And Keaton's devil-may-care attitude is in all likelihood more captivating than Kroc himself was.