The MIFF guide does an excellent job at describing the madness that is “Flux Gourmet”: “On a month-long residency at a prestigious art institute, an unnamed trio of ‘sonic caterers’ – artists who create music with food and related items – play with flavour, flangers and fornication under the watchful eye of their benefactor, the imperious Jan Stevens, whose meddling exacerbates the group’s backstage bickering. Outside the walls, a rival collective named the Mangrove Snacks conducts acts of gastronomic terrorism in protest at their rejection by Stevens, who doesn’t like what they do with terrapins. Documenting the proceedings is a flatulent flâneur, whose intestinal issues are not being helped by the institute’s in-house doctor.”
Peter Strickland's fifth feature “Flux Gourmet” was on my most anticipated list of 2022. I wrote back then that I had no idea what I would get with the film, and that out of all of the films on that list, “Flux Gourmet” had the biggest chance of being a total dud. I am happy to report that the opposite is true and that “Flux Gourmet” is an unmitigated success and is yet another of Strickland's idiosyncratic creations that fits comfortably amongst his brilliant, yet very odd oeuvre. Before my screening at MIFF, I had actually already seen the film, but knew that it would work so well with an audience and on the big screen that there was no way I was missing my chance to see it like that. I love this film so much, but really have no idea why or how it works so well.
Combining two tonally different plot threads, writer / director Peter Strickland has done almost the impossible and created gold with “Flux Gourmet”. The main part of the film is a very, very funny look at an unnamed “sonic collective” and their time together during their residency at an exclusive art institute, where they constantly bicker amongst themselves and with their director, before starting to implode. Documenting their stay at the residency is a “dossiage”, Stones, who is struggling with a gastrointestinal disorder, making him feel uncomfortable within the group due to the excess wind his body needs to regularly release, and it is Stones' ordeal that is the second plot thread of the film. The tones between the two plot threads couldn't be more different and yet they live together harmoniously in the same film. The whole aspect involving the sonic collective is so over-the-top and done with tongue planted firmly in their cheek; it is hilarious and we laugh both with the group and at the group. However Strickland then balances the absurdity of the sonic collective with the complete sincerity in regards to Stones' condition and the pain and awkwardness he feels because of it. Whilst the situations he finds himself in are humorous (not to mention his dead-pan narration of his problems, told in subtitled Greek), Strickland never once makes fun of him or his condition. Strickland then is able to make both plot threads come together for a very satisfying conclusion that is also, amazingly, quite poignant too. Again, I have no idea how he does it, and it really shouldn't work, but it just does!
I love this film so much and love so many elements about it that I am now going to gush over these elements incessantly (although there is so much I like about “Flux Gourmet”, I doubt I will be able to highlight them all). Firstly, the entire cast is excellent; they all clearly understood just what type of film they were making, as well as the tone of the film, and they deliver in spades. The collective consists of Billy, Lamina and their leader Elle (“I'm the boss!”), and are played by Asa Butterfield, Ariane Labed, and Fatma Mohamed, and they are all wonderful. Strickland muse and regular Fatma Mohamed is an absolute superstar in “Flux Gourmet”; she is so funny and pissy in equal measure. Her insane arrogance is hilarious when she refuses to listen to anyone's ideas or suggestions as it would quash her artistic sensibilities. It is all about the performance with Elle, but this is probably because she does not understand the technical side of her culinary collective, which Billy and Lamina have to handle. There is a very funny and ongoing joke in the film after she refuses to take the flanger down a notch, simply because it was not her idea. It turns out that she doesn't even know what a flanger is or what it does (“I do. I thought you said blanger”). Mohamed has been in all of Peter Strickland's films so far, but this comedic side is something we haven't seen before from her, but she is just hilarious. Asa Butterfield is a revelation as Billy, the nice dumb guy of the group who has a sexual fetish for eggs. He plays him very matter-of-factly, like he has just fallen into this life and is happy to go with the flow. He has a number of great scenes but I particularly liked his one-on-one interviews with Stones, and his after dinner speech, particularly because he has no filter and is so honest. Rounding out the trio is Ariane Labed playing Lamina, who out of the three has the least to do, but makes everyone of her moments count.
Outside the trio, we have the other two important characters to the film: Jan Stevens, the director of the institute, and Stones, the man documenting the collective's stay during their residency. Gwendoline Christie plays Jan Stevens and she is right up there with Fatma Mohamed in being total gold in “Flux Gourmet”. The bitter arguments with Elle, her seduction of Billy, her fear of the Mangrove Snacks and their escalated violence, she is brilliant in all these facets and so believable in a very heightened style that suits the film perfectly. Anyone familiar with Strickland's past films will know that he has an overly florid and poetic style of writing, with some of the dialogue being very complex and involving. Jan Stevens is the character who gets the bulk of these lines in “Flux Gourmet” and this very amusing dialogue just rolls of Christie's tongue effortlessly. Somehow it all sounds so natural coming out of her mouth. Strickland also has a habit in his films of going very big and out there with his costumes, and again Jan Stevens is the lucky character who wears the brunt of this madness. Each outfit she wears is so ridiculous and so over-the-top, but you cannot wait to see what she has on next in the following scene. Her nightwear particularly is just insane, and you cannot help laughing at it. Makis Papadimitriou, as Stones, has the least flashy roll but is very good at expressing just how uncomfortable he is with his disorder, and how he gets progressively more frightened that he may be going to die from it. He is much more dead-pan than the rest of the cast, but it works so well.
As I have said numerous times, I love a director who has a style that is recognisable as their own, and Peter Strickland certainly has that. What makes it more impressive is that none of his films resemble one another, they are all so different, but when you watch them, you know that only one man could have made the film. He has a very 70's European feel to his visuals, and it is well known that he has a fondness for this era of cinema. This is true once again with “Flux Gourmet” as we have scenes of the characters walking from their house to the institute in long capes, like something you would see in a Jean Rollin or Jess Franco film. There is also a very amusing reference to Mario Bava's “Diabolik”, when the trio, dressed like the spy character from that film, break in to Jan Stevens' bedroom to look for their flanger. The funniest bit being the way Billy's hair sticks out the eye-holes making him instantly recognisable if seen. Strickland clearly has love for sound, as this is his second film where sound plays a major role (the other being his second film, “Berberian Sound Studio” where Toby Jones plays a sound engineer working on the foley of a very violent Italian horror film). He is also part of, or at least has been in the past, of a culinary collective, so not only is “Flux Gourmet” a very personal film for him, but you could imagine that it would be pretty true in regards to the details of that world.
Another thing I loved in the film was when the collective had to do their drama exercises. They all have to pretend they are shopping, whilst Jan Stevens tells them situations to perform. The walls are bare and they have no props to help them, although Strickland has added sound to these moments to give them an added oomph. It is just another in a long line of things that you would think shouldn't work in “Flux Gourmet” but it just does.
Probably the thing I was most impressed by though was Strickland's handling of the ending and his ability to make something poignant out of all the insanity that has come before it. Whilst I wont go into details about how it gets to this point, a lot of Stone's character arc is about just how lonely it is when you have a gastrointestinal disorder, so to end the film on his smile due to him now being a part of something (and no longer alone) rather than being on the outside looking in, I thought was both lovely and surprising, and gave the film so much heart, despite it being bat-shit crazy.
Overall, I love Peter Strickland's “Flux Gourmet” so much and think it is probably his best film to date. There is so much I love about the film, that I barely scratched the surface of it here. It is filled to the brim with so many wonderful, crazy and hilarious moments that I believe you will be entertained throughout. Yes, the film is a little odd, so it may not be for everyone, but I will say that the majority of the audience I saw it with at MIFF seemed to love it, with there being a lot of laughter heard. The performances are all knock outs, the story has heart, and did I mention that it is so, so funny. Just go see this genius and very original film.
4 Stars.
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