Flux Gourmet Review

Flux Gourmet review.

Flux Gourmet brings the weird in full force. If you can allow it to wash over you it eventually hits a peak of pure absurdist comedy gold.

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Flux Gourmet

Directed by Peter Strickland

Written by Peter Strickland

Starring Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie, Ariane Labed, Fatma Mohamed and Makis Papadimitriou

Flux Gourmet Review

Flux Gourmet felt like an extended episode of Documentary Now. A very good episode, mind you. It can’t ever quite shake off the specific feel of that heighted satire. Stylistically it matches up. The movie is narrated by a writer observing the odd ins and outs of the art institution and the eccentric performance artists who take up residency there. Though it takes some time to completely coalesce, Flux Gourmet eventually achieves a peak in the brand of humor it’s dealing that few movies can match.

A trio of sonic caterers (performance artists who record sound from food) are taken into an exclusive culinary institute. A writer is on hand to document their process. Clashes with the head of the institute and her attempts to come between the band are tracked by the writer who finds himself becoming a part of the performance himself.

There’s no getting around the fact that Flux Gourmet is an odd movie. I could say it’s for people with a specific taste if I wanted to start punning. It’s a low stakes movie for the most part…but that makes the bickering over things that don’t matter part of its charm. There is a life and death feel to the fight over a piece of equipment whose removal you wouldn’t even notice. It’s a running joke that gets funnier with every scene.

The head of the institute is Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie) who seems normal enough at first but shows more and more lunacy as the story progresses. She can’t stand that her criticisms are dismissed by head of the band Elle (Fatma Mohamed) despite funding their project. She begins a campaign to systematically undermine Elle in increasingly comedic ways. Christie is tremendous here.

The writer, Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), is given a character trait that seems at odds with the tone of Flux Gourmet at first…but like his character eventually becomes a part of the whole thing. He has a gastrointestinal issue that causes him to pass gas constantly. It feels odd to have a running fart joke as part of a surrealist comedy…but it ends up fitting in completely.

That’s the hard part of Flux Gourmet to put your finger on. Does the fart joke comment on the absurd world of artists the movie is satirizing? Is it meant to undercut the hyper serious nature of something already inherently silly? I never figured that out over the course of Flux Gourmet, but it didn’t inhibit my overall enjoyment. If anything, it elevated it. Everything becomes so absurd that the gas talk and the bickering about innocuous equipment finds a natural fit.

Peter Strickland gives us a world that looks as off kilter as it sounds. He doesn’t do anything over the top. He leaves that for Elle’s performance art. What Strickland does is add the odd touch here (a jester looking nightcap) and a strange choice there (the three artists rising from their beds in unison day after day) to remind us that the world we have entered isn’t the one we are used to.

Of course, a movie like Flux Gourmet lives and dies on its performances. The cast knocks it out of the park. Each of the band members has their quirks…but no one is as extreme as Elle. Everything she does is interesting. Everything she says is funny. She continues to softly say Jan Stevens full name under her breath in anger until it becomes a hilarious button on a scene. Perhaps that’s what sonic catering is. A sound baked in that becomes something more.

Elle and Jan’s feud is what drives what story there is in Flux Gourmet forward. That and watching Stones become ingratiated in the whole thing and having no idea what draws him to it. Stones is a good representation of what it feels like as a viewer of Flux Gourmet. At first you aren’t sure what you’re doing here. Later you find yourself drawn to it and can’t explain the appeal. In the end…it becomes something you just can’t shake and want more of.

Scare Value

Not everyone will enjoy Flux Gourmet. It takes time to settle into the strange world of this sonic catering band. When you do settle in it, however, there is a true treat of black comedy awaiting you. A fully committed cast makes this incredibly odd piece of satire work.

3.5/5