The Founder (2016)
Critic Reviews
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80
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Variety Guy Lodge
Keaton plays Kroc as a man both pathetic and singularly possessed, cannily resisting lovability at every turn, while delivering the internalized self-help speak of his sales pitches with chillingly glib precision.
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80
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Screen International Fionnuala Halligan
The extent of Kroc's greed is The Founder's unique playing card, and John Lee Hancock delivers it with a depressingly special sauce.
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80
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Los Angeles Times Justin Chang
[Hancock] turns the unlikely subject of a fast-food chain into a quasi-religious satire, a parable of American striving and, ultimately, a study of artisanal integrity gradually caving in to commercial compromise.
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75
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The A.V. Club Jesse Hassenger
Hancock is not the ideal fit for the queasy mix of fascination, sympathy, and discomfort that Siegel brought to movies like The Wrestler and Big Fan. The Founder is drier than either of those movies, which means it's less funny but also has even less potential for sentiment.
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67
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Indiewire Eric Kohn
If The Founder comes up short of providing a satisfactory dramatization of its main storyline, at least it peels back the veil with sufficient intrigue. Yet it still leaves the sour impression that Kroc got the last laugh. Even in this less-than-flattering portrait, he remains its brightest star.
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60
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The Hollywood Reporter Leslie Felperin
Hancock's apparently irrepressible penchant for folksy Midwestern types and perky montages dilutes any cynicism or misanthropy that might have given this material the edginess it deserves.
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60
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Time Out New York Tom Huddleston
Like the product that inspired it, The Founder is tasty enough while it lasts but never quite fills you up.
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59
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TheWrap Alonso Duralde
The Founder never steps up to become the biting satire of American capitalism it so begs to be. The film is not here to praise Ray Kroc, but neither is it here to bury him.
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50
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ScreenCrush Matt Singer
This movie offers very few insights, and has no apparent point beyond mythologizing the early days of a company that doesn't exactly need assistance in the self-mythologizing department.
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38
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Slant Magazine Elise Nakhnikian
Michael Keaton's powerful performance in The Founder is marooned in a wishy-washy story.
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