Founder - The

★★★★½ (4.5/5) Recommended for: Fans of The Social Network , Wolf of Wall Street , or anyone who wants to understand why your local McDonald’s tastes exactly the same in Tokyo as it does in Tulsa. “Contracts are like hearts. They’re made to be broken.” – Ray Kroc (as portrayed in The Founder )

Convinced he has found the next big thing, Kroc persuades the cautious McDonald brothers to let him franchise their concept. What follows is a masterclass in ambition, manipulation, and the slow, systematic erasure of the very people who created the idea. Michael Keaton delivers one of his finest post- Birdman performances. He doesn’t play Kroc as a villain—at least not at first. Keaton shows us a man driven by desperation, then by hunger, and finally by an almost pathological need for control. His Kroc is all relentless optimism masking cold calculation. The famous motel room scene, where Kroc monologues about the “rats” and “dogs” in business, is a tour de force—transforming a fast-food pitch into a chilling manifesto. The Founder

For anyone who has ever dreamed of building something, the film offers a sobering question: At what point does the dream stop being yours—and at what point do you stop being the person who dreamed it? ★★★★½ (4