"Flux Gourmet" a reliably strange oddity from Peter Strickland

Flux Gourmet (2022)

Peter Strickland’s “Flux Gourmet” is another auteur-flavored oddity all the way. Capturing the senses whether it’s through sound mixing in film production (“Berberian Sound Studio”), a bondage relationship (“The Duke of Burgundy”), or lethal retail (“In Fabric”), writer-director Strickland is undefeated in making a film that is distinct and almost always fascinatingly strange. Like his previous work, “Flux Gourmet” is definitely an acquired taste. But as a bizarre, absurdly po-faced black comedy about art, food, autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), and flatulence, it’s really true this time.

A dysfunctional sonic collective takes a residency at the Sonic Catering Institute, run by director Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie). The three-person band of culinary performance artists, including Elle Di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed), and Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield), make sound with food. While battling creative differences and can’t even decide on a name, these provocateurs’ process is being documented by writer Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), who suffers from gastrointestinal issues and spends a lot of time in the shared bathroom. Nothing that follows could possibly be predicted. Read the full review at Phindie.

Grade: B -

IFC Midnight released “Flux Gourmet” (111 min.) in select theaters and on demand on June 24, 2022.