Movie review: 'King Corn'

Nothing can scare me away from my beloved popcorn, but "King Corn" comes close.

By Colin Covert, Star Tribune

Last update: December 6, 2007 - 6:01 PM

"King Corn" (★★★, unrated) is an entertaining, hip documentary in the spirit of investigative jesters Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore. We follow eco-activists Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis as they plant an acre of corn, harvest it and examine the ripples it makes through our economy, political system, food chain and gastric tract.

"Almost everything you eat is corn," observes one expert, and the film demonstrates how those humble niblets became America's biggest and most important crop, working their way into burgers, soda, ketchup, peanut butter and even beer.

Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz is on hand to explain the importance of government corn subsidies in maintaining our age of plentiful food, which our ancestors could never have imagined. But those 99-cent fast food burgers come at a cost.

The superabundance of corn, high-fructose corn syrup and processed corn-based carbs has helped turn America into a nation plagued by jiggling guts, rampant heart disease and diabetes. Animal nutritionists confirm that corn-fed cows are so unhealthy they have to be slaughtered before their diet kills them. Nothing can scare me away from my beloved popcorn, but "King Corn" comes close. (Oak Street Cinema; 309 SE. Oak St., Mpls. 612-331-3134.)