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Eric Schlosser's anarchic best-selling book exposed the dark underbelly of American fast food culture, now it gets a fictionalised - but still totally compelling - movie treatment from Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly, School of Rock).

Focussing on the immigrant experience of exploitation on the Tex-Mex border, Fast Food Nation sets in motion a quartet of tales that collide Babel-style in a frenetic final act. This ensemble piece looks at America's fast food industry through the eyes of an honest but na�ve burger chain executive, a group of border-hopping immigrant workers chasing the American dream, a gaggle of idealistic student activists eager to take a stand against the cruelty of the meat packing kill floor and mean and moody meatpacking dude Bruce Willis, "The truth is we all have to eat a little shit�"

We open on a tense border crossing as a group of Mexicans embark for the gateway to a promised land of prosperity symbolised by the omnipresent golden arches. Kinnear works for the fictional burger chain Mickey's and is asked to take a trip to a company meatpacking plant to investigate claims that, "there's shit in the meat." In parallel Linklater cuts, in harsh close up, to slacker kids working at a Mickey's outlet serving food they've dropped on the floor while it's not long before a meat packing floor manager - played by the brutal Bobby Cannavale - is having his wicked way with one of the Mexican girls after introducing them to the delights of the 'cutting line'. Look out for a delightful cameo from Kris Kristofferson as an old rancher lamenting better days and Luis Guzman an energetic force as Coyote the man with a van who can get you into America while, in just a few scenes, Bruce Willis does his best work this side of the millennium.

If you enjoy the guilty pleasure of the odd burger then the scenes from the kill floor will have you reaching for a sick bag. The filmmakers had to shoot these scenes in Mexico because no US meat company would allow it. The actors are seen doing the job for real alongside working extras. "The meat you see in the film was going to Japan," explains Linklater. He sees his film as a "companion piece" to Schlosser's book and was eager to highlight the factory mentality of an industry that maintains, "most profitable is best". The overall effect of this narrative treatment of the famous 'shock and tell' book is engrossing, and at times gross out. Linklater and Schlosser have been attacked both in the media and personally but the Texan director jokes, "Corporate America is always behind the curve." Linklater reckons if they're gunning for the film he must be doing something right. You'll think so too.