Flux Gourmet (2022)

October 25, 2022 1:00 PM

Set at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance, a collective finds themselves embroiled in power struggles, artistic vendettas, and gastrointestinal disorders.

Starring Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie, Ariane Labed, Fatma Mohamed, Makis Papadimitriou, Richard Bremmer, Leo Bill, Parvinder Kaur.

Written and directed by Peter Strickland.

85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Shudder. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

This was much less disgusting than I expected. It's sort of a giallo version of This Is Spinal Tap set in a world where performance artists are the biggest stars on the planet. It's not horror, but you frankly need the hardened sensibilities of a horror enthusiast to sit through it, and definitely to laugh at the jokes, of which there are very many.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:13 PM on October 25, 2022

Saw it a few weeks ago. As someone who was young in the heyday of Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway I feel quite at home in Strickland's world. That said, at least here and in Berberian Sound Studio, there's a sense that the transgressional is performed but deceptively (vegetables stand in for flesh in both, for example).

As far as I know, the only other film to have centred so much on digestive distress is Greenaway's Belly of an Architect, which definitely doesn't pull its punches. That softness leaves Flux Gourmet as fundamentally enjoyable, though. More than the meals seem to be, but I may be wrong.

It might be worth noting that the Sonic Catering Band are real and Peter Strickland is a member (lead chef, I think, though I don't know if that's said anywhere, which would make him the real life Elle).

I described it as "Throbbing Gristle: the Cooking Show", and certainly, if they ever do a TG biopic, Asa Butterfield should be a shoo-in for Genesis P. Orridge.

My comedy of the year, but all that demonstrates is that my understanding of comedy haz gon rong.
posted by Grangousier at 2:49 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

What a strange little film. This didn't work for me as either comedy or horror, and I found myself getting bored partway through. I watched it all, but ... meh. I suspect that this director and I just don't find the same things entertaining.
posted by johnofjack at 5:38 PM on December 2