Wiseman's ongoing study of bureaucracy takes on epic proportions in Welfare, the first of his films to stretch beyond standard feature length. Masterful editing gives subtle structure to the chaos of stories in a New York City welfare center, playing out themes and variations, building tension, then retreating into uneasy calm. Individuals' encounters with the system run the gamut from bemused resignation to delirious antagonism. One client, obviously crazy yet frighteningly insightful, invokes Waiting for Godot; another, enraged, demands to know, “Whose fault is it?” Nobody, including Wiseman, offers an answer. Ultimately the filmmaker's interest in the institution seems less social than metaphysical: hearing endless repetitions of the caseworkers' exhausted explanations, glimpsing the same faces in different waiting rooms, we begin to feel time circle back on itself.
—Juliet Clark