20s Movie Review - Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food

Director: Stephanie Soechting
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 83 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: -

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2024 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 44: A FILM WITH A STRONG ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGE
 
Description: A call to action for the officials who have the power to mitigate the danger caused by foodborne pathogens that kill thousands of people in the U.S. every year.

Review: Stephanie Soechting’s documentary is focused entirely on the food industry of the United States, where there seems to be separate inspectorate for each food group, and they work nicely alongside each other. For however safe and controlled our food chain may seem: the danger lurks in every supermarket.

In 1992, customers of the fast-food chain Jack in the Box  could be hospitalized after taking a bite out of their burgers. For some, it even turned into a tragic death. The E. coli bacteria found in the meat sickened hundreds of people as the bacteria poisoned their own bodies. Four children died.

The cause lay in the restaurant chain’s policy of not heating their burgers properly, something the CEO vehemently denied. Unfortunately, it did not stop there, because after eating contaminated meat, children in particular were found to be able to take the bacteria from each other as well. In fact, the E. coli contamination was only the beginning, because after burgers, lettuce turned out to be a pathogen because it was heated. This was followed by salmonella poisoning at a peanut butter manufacturer.

Scientist, victims, relatives, doctors, lawyers and journalists speak up about all this. There is too little awareness among food producers that their products are actually consumed and can therefore pose public health hazards.

Its clear that Soechting is on the side of the scientists and the food industry is the ‘bad guy’. The documentary lacks nuance and the prospect of improvement is also largely abandoned. It does have an important message to proclaim and it is powerful, due to the people who experienced it and who did the research are the focus.   

Rating: 3/ 5

Book Review - We Spread by Iain Reid

Title: We Spread
Author: Iain Redi
Genre: Horror/ Fiction
Published: 2022
 
Description: Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents”
 
Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny – with a growing sense of unrest and distrust – starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?
 
Review: I already couldn’t fault Iain Reid’s “Foe”, which I believe to be a masterful piece of literature. I kept reading that “We Spread” was his best book or at least it was the favorite of Reid’s book for many readers. And I now know why. What an amazing book! And it’s a possibility it will be my favorite of the year.
 
Penny lives alone after her long-term partner has passed. She is content with her life as is, but after a fall she is being placed in a care facility her partner had arranged for, right before his passing. Soon after settling in, Penny starts to lose her grip on time and reality.
 
“We Spread” is an incredibly tense story. It’s horror how I like it: psychological, fear of everyday things, not knowing whether you can trust your own observations. Penny has difficulties with aging, loneliness and forgetfulness, but she still feels sane enough to trust her own instincts. But when moving to Six Cedars, even that becomes un uncertainty. You feel her fear and because we follow the story through her perspective we never know what is real and what’s not.
 
Iain Reid keeps ups guessing until the end. I could not put this book down. I loved everything about this and, like “Foe”, I can’t fault this book. It’s perfection.
 
Rating: 5/ 5