The Founder (2016)
4 Stars out of 5
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX2uz2XYkbo
I have a personal connection to the Kroc Family in that they have been part of it because of their ownership of the Padres for 3/4 of my life. I thought I knew everything there was to know about Ray Kroc. Not even close. Turns out most of what I knew was just bullet points. Watching The Founder, I kept saying to myself that he was his era's version of Mark Zuckerberg in that he got the idea from another and more or less hijacks it, calling it his own (where the "Founder" name comes from) and making billions in the process. It's a bit more nuanced here and isn't as cut and dried as that. Ray may have the more important ingredient of 'persistence', but he is far from being a genius. He just happens to be a lucky SOB that happened to come across other people that knew their sh*t and told him what to do for him to capitalize on it. You have to marvel at how lucky he was. But you also have to feel bad for the McDonald's Brothers in their shortsightedness. I think it's noble they wanted to be good, hard working, honest guys and do it the "right" way. But the fact is, they blew it because they couldn't see all the angles that would lead to their ouster. And how would they be able to see those angles when even Ray didn't know what to do until pointed in the right direction by others. Michael Keaton is fantastic in the lead role and John Lee Hancock is his usual awesome self in the director's chair. Highly recommend this as a Rent. 4 Stars out of 5.