Super Size Me

Morgan Spurlock tied the experiment to rules: 30 days, three meals a day from one chain, every menu item at least once, nothing from outside, the larger portion only when the till offered it, about 5,000 steps a day. He finished the menu in 9 days, took the larger portion 9 times, and did not keep the walking rule closely. On day two a double burger meal and roughly 42 ounces of cola took 22 minutes, and he was sick in the car park. On day 21 came palpitations and liver findings; his internist Daryl Isaacs told him to stop and he carried on. He ended 24.5 pounds heavier. It took the documentary directing award at Sundance in 2004 and then the documentary screenplay award from the Writers Guild of America. At the 77th Academy Awards it was nominated for best documentary feature, which Born into Brothels won. In 2017 Spurlock said he had drunk heavily throughout the experiment, after telling his doctors during filming that he did not drink; that is what made the liver findings contested. A good fit if you treat the rules, and where they were broken, as part of what the film is about. Not for a viewer wanting a control group and fixed conditions; one subject, and some conditions slipped as it ran.