The story of McDonald’s is as American as that fast-food restaurant’s version of apple pie—a dubious, deep-fried log of chemically sweetened goo. The business was started by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, who brought production-line efficiency to their small San Bernadino hamburger stand. Emphasizing consistency and American values, the McDonalds were fleeced by a middling salesman who transformed their stand-alone burger joint into the biggest chain in the country.
That salesman, Ray Kroc, is played by Michael Keaton in The Founder. When we meet him, Kroc’s a down-on-his-heels traveling salesman, but once he lays eyes on the brothers’ booming business, he decides their speedy service is the niftiest idea he’s ever seen. He talks Dick and Mac (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) into letting him franchise the place, then somehow turns it into the massive behemoth we all regret eating at.