User Reviews

ASMR vibes and weird culinary themes pervaded this movie from start to finish - or rather, prep to performance. It was an interesting, though at times unnerving, exploration of food and our connection to it as humans.

As both director and writer, Peter Strickland did amazing work on this production. Tim Sidell's cinematography was crisp. Matyas Fekete's editing was quite good. Saffron Cullane's costume design was to-the-point. Hair-makeup, musical scoring, sound effects, and production design were all quite good.

Jan Stevens, played by Gwendoline Christie, was outstanding. Dr. Glock, played by Richard Bremmer, was great. Billy Rubin, played by Asa Butterfield, was good. Elle di Elle, played by Fatma Mohamed, was amazing. Stones, played by Makis Papadimitriou, was great. Lamina Propria, played by Ariane Labed, was quite good.

The concept of 'Sonic Catering' that was used in the movie was intriguing, to say the least. They weren't shy to expose the sickening side of things either. Eccentric sequences and disgusting ones together served to remind me that being human is not always perfect, let alone blemish-free.

As "Flux Gourmet" progressed it became, in my opinion, a curious, captivating, and diabolically under-rated title. They included visceral and explicit themes as well - not too out of place in a script like this. Catering and craziness mingled and boiled over into an eclectic script that boasted an engaging directorial spin rife with subtext.

I went into the movie during a spot of free time and left with a strange and misplaced need to know more. This story had a way with my senses that can best be called provocative. To say I had mixed feelings about "Flux Gourmet" would be putting it mildly. That, in itself, was a testament to its 'power of film'.

Being aware of (but having not seen any) of his films for years,I was excited to learn that the HOME cinema in Manchester were presenting Peter Strickland's latest work.

Ordering,and watching The Duke of Burgundy and In Fabric (both also reviewed),I excitedly got ready to discover what Strickland has cooked up.

View on the film:

Discussing during the Q&A that he had actually gotten the idea for this film before In Fabric was made, (and that he did not write the script in mind as a expansion of that earlier movie) writer/ directing auteur Peter Strickland (an extremely classy guy,who hung round chatting to fans after the screening, making sure everyone got what they wanted signed, which included signing a poster for me) decides in his screenplay to go towards the more abstract, surrealist direction which In Fabric had started drifting towards.

Strickland serves up tantalizing comedic, absurdist dining set-pieces inside a remote artistic institution, which slice into the vindictive power struggles behind the facade of the discreet charms of the bourgeoisie.

Filmed in just 14 days, and revealed during the Q&A being inspired by The Sonic Catering Band (of which he is a member of) director Strickland & cinematographer Tim Sidell (who was second unit cinematographer on Berberian Sound Studio-also reviewed) continue to wonderfully expand on Strickland's textured motif, with gliding panning shots over cooking table, (with the residences in the institution including to sweet performances from Gwendoline Christie and Fatma Mohamed, both regular collaborators of Strickland) that get chopped into deep, bursting with colour grotesque close-ups of guests partaking in the finger food grilled on music, as they eat up the flux gourmet.

Peter Strickland also made Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy and In Fabric, so I always look forward to what he does next. Even if I don't completely like it, I know that it'll definitely be interesting.

Since the 90s, Strickland has been part of the Sonic Catering Band, which creates music from the sounds of cooking, so it's already piquing my interest when this movie is set at Sonic Catering Institute. Run by Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie), it's the setting of this film and where a trio made up of Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield) and Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed) is in the middle of a series of concerts that combine food and sound creation.

They've added another member for the three-week stint, a writer named Stones (Makis Papadimitriou). The great food within the center has left him with both indigestion and gas, so he visits Dr. Glock (Richard Bremmer) who warns him that he may have a life-ending bowel condition.

Have you ever watched a nude woman dance while pigs are slaughtered and chefs cook behind her? Well, get ready. And at the end of each show, the group has an audience tribute which is basically an orgy that only adds to the issues between Elle di Elle's group, who have all been her lovers at one time. There's also a rival group called Mangrove Snacks who are trying to sabotage everything.

Flux Gourmet is a strange film. I'm certain that a ton of people who watch it on Shudder will hate it because it's not really horror. It's...something. Where Strickland has made a giallo, Eurohorror and a British 70s horror movie, now he's making a film about the inherent silliness of art movements. I didn't exactly love it but I didn't hate it - kind of like a high end meal where I definitely enjoyed the flavor but stopped at a convenience store to get a roller hot dog on the way home.

Given that this movie is a perfect example of over-pretentious modern "art", I find the flatulence issue Stones has a highlight of this movie's plot line (if you can say that this even has a plot). This is like some kind of cheap travesty of Yorgos Lanthimos' style of writing/directing. For several times I thought: Wow, they are really trying to do The Lobster here, huh. I mean c'mon, Ariane Labed is here for Pete's sake.

Take the money you would spend on the ticket and go buy some coffee...it will help you with digestion.

Or just go and watch the paint dry for 2hrs. Anything beats spending time on this.

2022's Flux Gourmet is writer-director Peter Strickland's fifth film, and is typically weird and macabre. Revolving around an artistic collective of "sonic caterers" housed in a remote institute, and the journalist sent to document their work, it is characteristically bizarre and often very, very funny.

The film sees Strickland revisit a few themes from Berberian Sound Studio, as the three members of the collective make truly unpleasant noises using food, specifically vegetable-based food. Appropriately, the strange but highly effective soundtrack is provided by the Sonic Catering Band, of which Strickland is a founding member, and whose work is as interesting as anything in the film. The three members of the group largely dislike each other, and are also at odds with Jan Stevens, the founder and owner of the retreat, who allowed them to stay and present their work to appreciative audiences, whose members reward performances with backstage sexual orgies. Sent to photograph their performances is Stones, a flatulent journalist beset by reflux and halitosis, whose neurotic writing - translated into English via subtitles - is as preoccupied with his gastrointestinal problems as they are about what he witnesses in the collective's performances.

Flux Gourmet is intentionally absurd, somehow coherent in its own warped internal logic, and often laugh-out loud funny, thanks to what possibly uniquely might be termed deadpan toilet humour. Many of Stones' funniest lines concerning his bowel-related discomfort, and he eventually agrees - with extreme reluctance - to undergo a colonoscopy not only in front of the members of the collective, but in front of an audience. When he eventually gets a diagnosis from the deranged, eccentric, cantankerous, classicist Dr Glock, whose habit of delaying his prognoses and diagnoses is hilarious, it turns out to be the diet changing Coeliac's disease (because of course, what else would it be in this film?), one which causes him to ruminate on the social reaction he receives by demanding a gluten-free diet. Meanwhile, the retreat is occasionally terrorised by rejected artistic group the Mangrove Snakes, who throw a beheaded terrapin through the window during dinner; Jan Stevens reveals that she rejected their application for a residency because she doesn't like what they do with terrapins.

Fans of Strickland's unique vision will be delighted by what he serves up here: it intentionally sounds revolting, but looks gorgeous, except of course for Elle's "scatological" performance, which is truly disgusting, even if she cheats by using just chocolate mousse. Cinematographer Tim Sidell is clearly on board with Strickland's uniquely bizarre vision: close-ups demand focused performances by the cast members; wide-angle shots capture the characters' unusual art. And the cast embraces the spirit of the piece wholeheartedly: Fatma Mohamed - who has appeared in all of Strickland's films to date - is magnificently venomous as the diva Elle di Elle, whilst Makis Papadimitriou channels neurosis as Stones. Richard Bremmer - who appeared in In Fabric - is perfectly cast as the misanthropic, intellectual snob Dr Glock, Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie and Ariane Labed are equally convincing as egg-fetishist Billy Rubin, the emotionally volatile Jan Stevens, and the troubled Lamina Propria.

For a film in which the plot is essentially ludicrous and the characters are grotesque caricatures, Flux Gourmet ends on an oddly affirmative note: symbolically, when Elle is shot (but not killed) by a sniper, the remaining members of the Collective introduce meat to their performance, whilst Stones - his alimentary troubles if not quite resolved then at least identified and manageable - realises that he is finally part of something. Fans of Strickland will be left hungry for whatever he cooks up next.

Is this Culinary sound art a real thing?

Is this a Satire on pretentious performance art?

If it is does that make it pretentious itself?

This is so challenging to watch. It's very strange but at the same time visually interesting.

A group of Culinary performance artists stay at a house or school or something dedicated to this type of art.

Then the Woman funding the operation wants them to remove a sound from their performance and is refused by the groups leader. She tries to get her own way by first manipulating the guy in the group and then by classing it as evidence because at the same time a rejected group who missed out on funding keep attacking the house with Terrapins.

Also the reporter following the group has flatulence and they start to incorporate his medical examinations into their act.

I think that's the plot.

I sort of want to watch it again.

The main characters are very good i thought and believable and i actually bought the whole thing.