The Candid Camera formula always seems a little cruel when applied to the average defenseless schmuck, but it's the perfect antidote to the sanctimony of politicians. Such is the premise of Feed, a 1992 documentary from the makers of The Atomic Cafe, on the '92 New Hampshire primaries: Clinton, Bush, Tsongas, Buchanan et al., caught off guard to hilarious effect. Cobbled together from intercepted satellite feeds and discarded news footage of the candidates, Feed now plays like a nostalgic political blooper reel — but not a particularly tight one. Despite a handful of choice moments (Jerry Brown snorting nose spray), there's not enough here to justify a seventy-six-minute run time.
Maybe this stuff was more cutting in the early '90s. Political slipups are all over YouTube, and they're The Daily Show's bread and butter. Whatever mystique politicians had in '92 (not much) is probably gone now. But then, given Roger Ebert's contemporaneous two-star review, that may be giving Feed too much credit. — Peter Smith
DVD EXTRAS: None — too bad, because info on how the film's content was compiled might've been more interesting at this point than the content itself.