Feed: The Movie, Or, An Argument For Vegetarianism And Celibacy
August 28th, 2009 1:00 pm by Jonathan
While I was in the middle of writing two articles for Less Than Credulous, my writing and thoughts were interrupted by casual movie watching with a piece that had my jaw on the floor, and my eyes unable to move from the screen no matter how much common sense would have wanted otherwise. If you are brave or need to satiate your morbidly (this adjective will be used in conjunction with another word later on in this article) curious side, then continue. If you are squeamish and disturbed by human nature, then I ask that you read something informative, enlightening, and more down to Earth (Shane's articles are very good for this).
The movie is entitled “Feed,” directed by Brett Leonard (the writer of “The Lawnmower Man” movie script), and tells a tale of on-line gambling, serial murders, and relationships – all done through the filter of what some might label sexual deviance. Before the film even started (as my fiancée and myself had just tucked in for a night of dinner and a movie), a disclaimer popped up on the screen to state that while the story and characters may be fictional, the events are based on stories about acts between consenting adults (this is when I tried to hurry up with what I was eating because I had a funny feeling that the wild ride was about to begin).
I expected dark humor. I was wrong. In fact, this movie deviates a lot from the formula of serial murder thrillers in that there really isn't much seen of the protocol and investigation followed by authorities; there is no sense of suspense or urgency; but (and this really struck me) there was a lot of camera time spent with the killer and his (unwitting) victim.
“Feed” is mostly about relationships of control. It explores the consent given between people in dominant and submissive roles, and even (much to my surprise) touched on how the person “in control” must invest in, and take care of, the object of his/her affection (there was a brief correlation with a scene of a police raid on a couple who were performing an at similar to a startling article from a few years ago).
Now let's get to the meat and potatoes of this movie. Detective Philip Jackson is part of an Australian police force, and his job is to hunt down sexual predators and illegal (mostly on-line) sexual activity. While searching for a new crime to be investigated, he finds the site geared toward “feeders” and “gainers.” For those of you new to these terms, or for those that never let a drunken friend use their computer, The former (feeders) take great delight in doing just what their name implies: shoving food in people's mouths and watching them eat. The latter (gainers) are the recipients of such action, and relish in eating and gaining weight.
Det. Phil finds that the physical location of these streaming videos, and, breaking all the rules like the maverick he is, takes a flight to Toledo, Ohio to stop this nefarious act. One wonders at this point what everyday actions are now considered pornographic.
Thus far, I'm being very tame in my description. I've left out the details of the German cannibalism scene (that is not a knackwurst in the pan). I've not gone into detail about our morbidly obese (see, I told you) 600 lb. webcam babe, dressed in lingerie, and getting very excited at the mountains of cheeseburgers getting crammed into her mouth; nor am I going into great detail about her screams of ecstasy when the host of the show (our killer) hoists her off of the bed and she realizes she's reached her new weight goal (kind of the opposite of any weight goal you may have set for yourself at the gym, or the goal you “let slip” after New Year's). If you want the visuals, watch the movie for yourself, because I've already been on this wonderful adventure, and some things just don't translate to words. Just keep in mind, you cannot unsee things.
To get back to the story, Phil tracks down our killer, and finds that his “sex” site (on a personal note, sex would have been the least offensive thing in this movie – which is probably why they didn't include it) is taking bets; not on how much camera babe Dierdre will be super-sized, but on when she'll die. Phil breaks into the killer's home (formerly his mother's – yes, they went the route of using the convention of “mother issues” to explain this maniac's motives and sexual depravity), to discover bags containing the parts of former victims.
While this is occurring, our lipo-killer (Michael) is preparing a final feast for his objet d'amour. It is a gruel of weight-gain powder and (what is heavily implied to be) the rendered fat of one of his former victims, all lovingly force-fed through a funnel and into Dierdre.
At this point, the detective bursts in, and tries to expose Michael for what he really is. Dierdre, however, is confused, and doesn't understand why this Australian stranger with a gun would be trying to disrupt what was (and has been) a very consensual and sensual experience between two adults. Of course, the end goal being a slow and heavy homicide was tacked on so that there could be conflict and resolution (which in itself took a very unexpected twist). I will not spoil the ending for you (unlike what I've probably done to your next meal), in order to get you to watch this fairly underrated movie.
All said and done, I wanted to say this was a good movie. It broke away from a lot of the usual formulas, and (again) apart from the whole “killing” thing, it provoked the questions of what is obscene, and what rights, if any, anyone has to judge what consenting people do in private or on-line.
The lines repeated throughout this movie are “You are what you eat,” and “Consumption is evolution.” You will think twice after seeing this film about what you do and eat, and how it is perceived by yourself and society. While I do not have a rating system in play for my own movie reviews, the best I can do is recommend this movie on an empty stomach.
March 11th, 2010
Good review.
I love this movie. It’s unusual, it held my interest from beginning to end, and the acting was excellent. Alex O’Loughlin shines as Michael. Anyone who has seen his other work on TV or in films knows that he is a brilliant actor, and he really shows off his range in this role. I was impressed that he and his costar Patrick Thompson came up with the idea for a film after having seen a documentary about feeders and gainers. They took the idea to Brett Leonard and it turned into what was almost a “family affair”. Brett assembled almost the entire cast from “Man-Thing” and they filmed FEED on an extremely low budget in about 28 days.
I love having the DVD, as some of the best scenes are in the deleted scenes, and “FEED in Philly”, with the audience answer and question with producer Melissa Beauford and Alex O’Loughlin is so much fun to watch.
I would recommend that anyone who likes FEED get a copy of the UK DVD. It has the option to watch the movie with commentary by Brett Leonard, and some of the info about how the movie was made is so much fun to hear, especially with Brett’s sense of humor.
FEED was meant to be a thriller and a dark comedy as well. Some of the scenes that are meant to be funny truly hit the mark. From some of the things I have read on the internet I think that some of that humor was lost on some viewers who couldn’t get around being “squeamish”. Personally, I didn’t see anything the be that squeamish about, though Brett himself tells you in his commentary that he hopes that you are “disturbed”. He laughs as he says that.
I enjoyed the soundtrack so much I got a copy of the CD. Seeing Michael do his little dance to “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” is worth the cost of the DVD all alone, as are his rants about women and body image, etc. Again, Alex is brilliant as Michael, and as his popularity rises as it has over the past few years, FEED is destined to be a cult classic, as I have already seen it referred to many times.
Get the US DVD to get all of the extras, and then the UK version to get that commentary by Brett.