I often surprise people when I tell them that one of my favorite movies is 2016’s The Founder, which has been overshadowed for far too long thanks to its surface-level similarities with another Academy Award-winning biopic. Quietly one of Michael Keaton’s best movies, The Founder stars him as Ray Kroc, the man who turned McDonald’s into the fast food empire it is today.

Specifically, The Founder goes over how Kroc essentially stole the idea from Mac and Dick McDonald, the two brothers who actually came up with the concept for fast food in their original McDonald’s restaurant. The film is easily one of Keaton’s most underrated performances, serving as an excellent character study dissecting the sickening commitment to capitalism zealously held by one man.

The Founder is able to weave a rich and emotionally devastating narrative out of the real events that led Mac and Dick McDonald to lose control of their baby, putting the franchise in the clutches of a man who put the almighty dollar above all else. Directed by John Lee Hancock of The Blind Side fame, The Founder far outdoes anything else in his filmography.

The Founder Is An Amazing Film That Has Gone Underrated

Few Films Have Been As Overlooked

The Founder is only widely regarded as a decent enough film, sporting an 80% critical score on RottenTomatoes.com, only barely trailing a similar audience score of 82% freshness. But I believe that The Founder deserves far more credit than it has gotten, with most only seeing it as a moderately successful biopic on the surface.

Not only is Keaton’s performance diabolically great as he embodies Kroc’s smarmy dog-eat-dog mentality, but the gorgeous set dressing of the 1950s and ’60s embodies McDonald’s friendly, appetizing colors that gild a deeper corporate greed never before seen by another restaurant business. The film makes McDonald’s seem simultaneously delicious and abhorrent.

Both a startling condemnation of the mentality that drove Ray Kroc to such lengths to maintain his vice grip on his stolen idea and an advertisement for McDonald’s by the sheer nature of its publicity, The Founder walks a fascinating razor’s edge of morality. This is something few reviewers take note of beyond what they see as a competently done biopic that’s ultimately nothing special.

Critics aren’t the only ones that weren’t altogether wowed by the film. At the box office, the film struggled to break even, possibly not even meeting its approximate budget with a measly 24.1 million dollar take worldwide.

What Criticisms Of The Founder Overlook

Most Complaints With The Film Are Strangely Surface-Level

Some criticisms of The Founder argue that Ray Kroc’s personal life doesn’t get enough screen time, but I’d retort that such a statement is missing the point — For better or for worse, McDonald’s was his whole life, clinging to his sH๏τ at success with a vice grip. Folded into the argument is the idea that The Founder is a film that wastes famous actors’ screentime.

While Keaton’s performance carries the film as a character study, it’s true that the cast is lined with an impressive roster that doesn’t get much screentime, including Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, B.J. Novak, and especially Laura Dern as Ray’s first wife, Ethel Kroc. But I refute the idea that a film including talented actors has to have them on screen for a certain amount of time.

It’s not like The Founder was baiting audiences with false advertising, implying these actors would be more present. From the beginning, the strength of Keaton’s performance alone is the clear selling point, and the fascinating history the movie is able to establish revolving around him is just the foundation for what makes the story work, not needing too many other moving parts.

The Founder speaks subtly for much of its runtime, rarely allowing Ray to say what he thinks and relying on his shrewd actions to do most of the heavy lifting. It’s here that the film shines as a scathing condemnation of the type of hyper-individualistic, compeтιтive social Darwinism that Kroc’s dangerous ethos promotes.

Why The Comparison To The Social Network Isn’t Justified

The Social Network Is An Amazing Film Too, But Comparison Isn’t Necessary

One shadow that The Founder simply can’t get out from under is the fact that it premiered 6 years after a very similar biopic, The Social Network, which swept the 2011 Academy Awards. As both films star egotistical foundational members of what would become world-wide empires of business, the comparison is an easy one to draw, and is touted as not being original by some.

However, these surface-level plot similarities do not a movie make. The tone, setting, and stylistic choices of the two films are very different, with The Founder concerning itself far less with hopping around on a volatile timeline of deceit and more interested in the psychological profile of its anti-hero’s actions. The Founder may have certainly taken inspiration from The Social Network, but calling it a rip-off simply isn’t fair.

How The Founder Arguably Does The Same Story As The Social Network Better

If The Two Must Be Compared, I Believe The Founder Is Superior

Even if it does bear many striking similarities, I would argue that The Founder tells a similar story to The Social Network, but better. Mark Zuckerberg’s character, as he’s presented in the film, constantly finds excuses and justifications for his actions, deluding himself into believing that his corporate treachery is just and deserving.

What makes Keaton’s Ray Kroc more compelling as a vicious business executive is, in my opinion, his admission of guilt. In The Founder, Kroc is certainly aware of how despicable his actions are, but persists anyway with a slimy smirk, unashamedly stopping at nothing to quite literally steal the family name from a hardworking duo for his own convenience.

In the eyes of many, The Founder isn’t remarkable as one of the best biopics, always second fiddle to The Social Network. But I strongly maintain that while The Social Network is certainly an amazing film that deserves all its accolades, it’s been outdone by The Founder in almost every compelling creative element.