'Super Size Me' makes for meaty viewing

Morgan Spurlock's outrageously amusing "Super Size Me" is the redheaded stepchild of Michael Moore and "Jackass," a low-budget nonfiction stunt with a sharp point of view, a sheaf of alarming statistics, and the willingness to entertain us until we cry uncle. Like "Bowling for Columbine," it's less a documentary than a provocumentary, and, like Moore, Spurlock is a born showman. It's one thing to rail against Fast Food America and the burgeoning obesity epidemic. It's another to eat nothing but Mickey D's for a solid month and record what happens.

Spurlock got the notion a few years back while watching news stories about two women who sued McDonald's over their weight gain, and lost. The company's defense was that its food is perfectly healthy, so the filmmaker, 33, put the matter to a test: three square meals of McDonald's food a day, and he had to accept a super-size portion if offered.

In the full spirit of deadpan mockery, Spurlock first gives himself a weigh-in: a cardiologist, nutritionist, and general physician look him over and pronounce him to be a fit, 185-pound ex-smoking New Yorker. Then it's off to the Golden Arches, to the horror of his vegan chef girlfriend and his own stomach lining: The "Super Size Me" crew captures Spurlock's first burger and fries coming back up in all their Technicolor splendor, a scene that should endear the movie to the teenagers who need to see it most.

As the 30-day diet wends onward and the director balloons into a dazed McNugget junkie, the film throws out dozens of greasy factoids: The number of people McDonald's feeds daily is greater than the population of Spain; 60 percent of Americans are overweight; 40 percent eat out each day; the average American child recognizes Ronald McDonald more easily than George Washington or Jesus; a 7-11 Double Gulp has 48 teaspoons of sugar in its half-gallon of soda. My favorite: French fries are this country's most consumed vegetable.

It's not all genial agitprop. Spurlock interviews Don Gorske, a Wisconsin McDonald's fanatic and Guinness record holder who claims to have eaten two Big Macs a day for 30 years; he's as skinny as a post, so there. The director also speaks to nutritionists and other specialists, discusses the compromised state of food in America's public schools, and muses on the perils of being a snack food executive: Baskin-Robbins heir John Robbins (author of "Diet for a New America") talks about his ice-cream-related health problems and we hear about Ben's (of Ben & Jerry's) quintuple bypass. Spurlock also spends a lot of time trying to get McDonald's Jim Cantalupo on the phone; he never did and never will, since the CEO died of a heart attack April 19 at 60.

Throughout, "Super Size Me" keeps returning in increasingly woozy circles to that diet, and the end results are enough to put you off the trough for good. Spurlock gains 25 pounds and suffers chest pains, depression, and "McStomach-aches." His cholesterol tests and other blood work set off air-raid klaxons, and one of his doctors proclaims the filmmaker's liver "obscene." Let's not talk about what it does to his libido.

The company has an easy defense: No one's supposed to eat only at McDonald's. Except that many customers come close -- the marketing department calls them "heavy users" and would dearly love to increase their numbers. Besides, if many Americans aren't eating at McDonald's, they're at Burger King or Taco Bell or KFC or any of the other lard barns across the country.

With "Super Size Me," Spurlock gleefully martyrs his body to our sense of outrage. McDonald's announced recently that it plans to phase out super-size portions by the end of 2004 and has also launched a line of "Go Active! Adult Happy Meals" that includes salad, water, a pedometer, and a leaflet promoting the benefits of walking. In a remarkable coincidence, the new Happy Meals went on sale yesterday, a day before "Super Size Me" opened nationally.

Nice stab at corporate responsibility, but you may find more nutrition in the food for thought Spurlock offers; at the very least, there are more laughs. I don't usually make recommendations of this kind, but if you or your kids have gone to a burger joint in the last few weeks, you really do need to see this movie.

And maybe go easy on the Goobers while you're there.

Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com.

Super Size Me
Written and directed by: Morgan Spurlock
At: Harvard Square, Coolidge Corner, Embassy Cinema
Running time: 98 minutes
Unrated
***1/2