Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis's Genetically Modified Harvest

Mosaic Films Inc.

Ian Cheney (L) and Curt Ellis taste their genetically modified harvest in King Corn.

Details

King Corn
Directed by Aaron Wolf
Opens October 12, Cinema Village

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More About

• Ian Cheney
• Curt Ellis
• Aaron Wolf
• Super Size Me

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis can trace their roots back to a couple of patches of Iowa soil that their respective great-grandpappies used to own, and one day both guys figured, hey, what better way to see where they'd come from than to retrace their relatives' muddy footsteps in the cornfields? What Cheney and Ellis found wasn't the family tree, but its corn stalk—which reaches into everything most Americans eat and drink, for better or worse (the worse part, usually). Directed by Aaron Wolf, this is a twofold journey: the story of how two college buddies learned about their agricultural heritage, and the tale of how kernels of corn have insidiously worked their way into America's diet—through the cows who are literally overdosing on the stuff (and that is one nasty sequence) and the soft drinks sweetened with a syrup that the men find impossible to manufacture in a kitchen without damned near blowing up the house. A worthy companion piece to Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation (more the book than the movie), King Corn will put you off corn for a long, long time, but this is as much a thoughtful meditation on the plight of the American farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines.