'Flux Gourmet' A Review

Flux Gourmet is a dark comedy genre film about a 'culinary collective' which does 'sonic catering' a performance art that combines food and sound, they receive a residency at a remote artistic institution and the story follows the artists themselves- Billy(Asa Butterfield), Lamina(Ariane Labed), and Elle(Fatma Mohamed)- over the course of a month as they perform, clash with the institution's director Jan Stevens(Gwendoline Christie) and bring the institute's documentarian Stones(Makis Papadimitriou) into their performances.

The eclectic and excellent cast are all in some ways liberated by the bizarre style of the film, this kind of performative, deliberate pretention, a dead pan juxtaposed with an absolute earnestness. There's humor and pathos, wryness and absurdity, but it never becomes self-serious, never knowing- always exploratory. Christie goes for broke and it's wonderful to see her cut loose after years of work in great if mainstream fair, the same is true of Butterfield. Labed, a frequent collaborator with her husband Yorgos Lanthimos, is much more at home in the singular tone but she's always a delightful mix of contradictions. Mohamed, writer/director Peter Strickland's constant collaborator, doesn't have as much dimension as she does in some of their other work but is still absolutely captivating, like a witch out of a fairy tale plopped into modern cinema. Papadimitriou is in essence the straight man and his grounding presence and dry delivery balances the cast perfectly.

As with all of Strickland's work the production design is immaculate and rich. The costumes, the fabrics, the sets, the score, all thoroughly considered and exact but with their own vibrant life. The story, more of a journey or exploration, kind of a mirror of the capital A Art that the film both lauds and tears down, could be a bit too bizarre and gross for some. Strickland's work is an acquired taste(Duke Of Burgundy). But it is incredibly rich and thoughtful and funny. 

In the same realm as The Lobster or last year's Titane, an unapologetic art film with a budget robust enough and a vision clear enough to allow it to really soar. 

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

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