Ray Kroc is known as the founder of McDonalds. But, well, he isn't. He's the guy that spread the fast-food gospel, getting the franchise to move from one burger stand to the across-America phenomena it became (future CEOs would get it to go international). That simple inflation, though - that desire to be just a bit more than he actually is, defines the guy. He's that dark side of American Capitalism, a kind of pointless desperation just to be the best guy, not for any financial reasons, just because if you're not the best you don't count.
Michael Keaton almost manages to make this creature vaguely sympathetic. It's easier in the early stages, where he's struggling, than it is later on, when he's demolishing people around him just cause he can. He dismisses his marriage (this is a flaw in the film - Laura Dern's wife character disappears after the divorce and doesn't even get the benefit of a closing wrapup "this is what happened to her later" - possibly nothing much did, but I wish the screenwriters had thought her at least wothy of five minutes of research), he dismisses the guys who actually came up with the McDonalds concept (the McDonald brothers, played well by John Carroll Lynch as the avuncular Mac and Nick Offerman as the somewhat more technically minded Dick) and a couple of other business partners along the way.
This is a little bit "failed oscar bait" - it doesn't seem to have picked up on the awards circuit and that does appear to be kinda the reason why it was made. And this is a little soft at the centre - it's not quite willing to commit to blackening the name of American Capitalism, though it does incidentally make it look kinda bad. But it does have a nice motion to it, and a pretty strong cast. I fully admit that I probably buy into the "lives of awful men" trope a fair bit, so I was happy to go with this, but this isn't exactly the strongest meat out there. Still, it's effective in telling the story it's got
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