At 76 minutes, Feed is a rather brief look at the race for the presidency as seen, mainly, through pirated satellite feeds. Rafferty and Ridgeway (Blood in the Face) have compiled a document that offers a look behind the political fascade seen on the nightly news by editing together those moments before and after scheduled television interviews, as well as documenting the various stages of the New Hampshire primaries. Candidates are caught off guard being almost cloyingly human – Jerry Brown comes across as a preening, fussy Californian, more concerned with the fold of his tie than with anything else, Ross Perot offers a pair of resolutely unfunny jokes while waiting for the cameras to roll, and Bill Clinton runs into mental gridlock when asked how many abortions he’s been responsible for. Billed as “a comedy about running for president,” Feed is a slight film in both its length and content; it’s amusing at first to see the various candidates floundering with panicky pre-interview jitters, but the novelty of the situation wears off quickly. It’s no great surprise, I think, that these guys are as human (and as boring) as any of us, though the directors seem to think it might come as some great revelation to the American people that a presidential candidate could suffer from allergies. “Guest star” Arnold Schwarzenegger has the best line in the film, referring to the democratic candidates as a bunch of “girly-boys” while speaking at a republican fund-raiser. As a comedy, though, Feed runs out of yuks in its first 30 minutes. As a look at the American political system, its a timely and interesting glimpse behind what the voters are allowed to see on the six o’clock news. The question is, do we really want to see it?
This article appears in January 24 • 2003.