CarnivalAskew

Five years ago, Fast Food Nation was a book written by a relatively unknown investigative journalist named Eric Schlosser. It was well researched and very insightful, and like Morgan Spurlock did a few years later with his movie along the same vein, it got people talking about what they were eating.

When it was announced that Fast Food Nation was going to be made into a movie, those who read the book were excited at the prospect of such a great book being brought to the screen, but wondered how a fact-heavy book would translate to the screen without being a bore.

The first installment of Lars von Trier's "USA - Land of Opportunities" trilogy, Dogville, was a crowd divider. Against the arty scenery and the one set-sans-walls, there was a certain artlessness in its dialogue and its blatant concepts of injustice, vulnerability and the exploitation of power. The heroine turned out to be an anti-heroine, a kind of idealistic cynic armed with virtues, a gun, and posse of gangsters (no, really).