A gastronomic grotesque, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet explores issues of patriarchy, intimacy, trauma, oppression, artistic integrity and unrelenting flatulence — “seldom malodorous,” mind you.
At the Sonic Catering Institute, a three-person culinary collective undertakes a four-week residency. Fronted by Elle (Fatma Mohamed, Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy) the trio is a dysfunctional, codependent mess. That could also describe its performance art, if said act can be properly described at all, being displays in which the auditory co-exists with the alimentary. The institute’s head (Gwendoline Christie, Strickland’s In Fabric) puts Elle and her teammates (Assassin’s Creed’s Ariane Labed and Hugo himself, Asa Butterfield) through seemingly nonsensical exercises involving graph paper or grocery-store improv. A glacial-level fracture forms.
Documenting this monthlong experience of epicurean toxicity is a journalist (Makis Papadimitriou, Chevalier) struggling with a secret: painful, excessive farting. Strickland being Strickland, that’s hardly the film’s most outrageous aspect, as he marries concepts from the two aforementioned films with the sound-dependent conceit of his 2012 breakthrough, Berberian Sound Studio. Then he bakes that mix at an exponent of 350˚ for 111 minutes until unclassifiable, and serves with avocado paste, mint sauce and an omelet-related fetish. You won’t know what hit you — a great thing indeed.
Although sound designer Tim Harrison (Censor) is the picture’s unsung hero, Mohamed’s performance looms large with an absolute fearlessness. As discomforting and disturbing as Flux Gourmet is, it’s also brutally funny, with comedy as dark as the innermost section of the human intestinal tract. Those laughs serve as a salve as Strickland transports his audience from the EVOO to the OMFG. Prepare to swear off Nutella and smoothies for life. —Rod Lott