Flux Gourmet

Peter Strickland returns with Flux Gourmet, which follows the clashes of ethos and egos between a band that make sonic soundscapes using food. The results are messy

Film Review by Carmen Paddock | 16 Aug 2022
  • Flux Gourmet
Film title: Flux Gourmet
Director: Peter Strickland
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie, Ariane Labed, Fatma Mohamed, Makis Papdimitriou, Richard Bremmer, Leo Bill
Release date: 30 Sep
Certificate: 15

Over the course of his last four features – Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy, In Fabric and now 2022’s Flux Gourmet – writer and director Peter Strickland has established himself as an auteur of the arch and uncanny. The latter three films in particular seem to sit somewhat out of place and time, with any markers of modernity serving to further obfuscate the setting rather than anchor its era (and in Flux Gourmet’s case, its location). They could all be from the same slightly off-kilter universe, and Strickland dives deeper into the nasty and arcane in his most recent feature.

Unfolding on a secluded estate whose inhabitants are devoted to the myriad sensory possibilities of food, Flux Gourmet is explored through the point of view of an outsider to this collective: a journalist sceptical of the experience and paralysed by the threat of extreme flatulence. This ‘sonic catering’ – based on Strickland’s own similar band from the 1990s – creates sounds (and to a lesser extent, the feels, smells, and images) through food, evoking taste without ever directly calling on that sense. Delicious? Strangely so.

Still from Flux Gourmet. Three figures in long white robes stand behind a table filled with vegetables and cooking equipment, with two microphones pointed at a saucepan. The central figure holds a knife.

Strickland regular Fatma Mohamed moves to the centre of the drama as Elle di Elle, the leader of this strange performance art trio whose belief in herself and her artistic vision is all-encompassing and uncompromising. This inflexibility often puts her at odds with Jan Stevens, the boldly attired grand dame of the Sonic Catering Institute. Mohamed’s impetuous energy clashes against Gwendoline Christie’s imperious resolve. Their differences are many and captivating, but there seems to be little said about the nature of art, exploration, excess and human appetites beyond the superficial. A subplot where Jan romances Elle’s colleague Billy (an unkempt acolyte played by Asa Butterfield) enriches these three character studies, bringing a touch of the human to the absurd and pretentious.

Much of the film unfolds through performance art exercises (conducted by Elle, Billy, and third member Lamina). In a different film, these might be lampooning drama school exercises. Here, their bizarre extremity and the crisp, colourful backgrounds against which Strickland frames them pique the interest, veering away from all but the most tongue-in-cheek self-indulgence. It is clear that, like the sonic catering trio, cast and creative team are equally committed to this strange alternate world.

Despite the often-appetising, more often-alarming noises emanating from these experiments, Flux Gourmet feels somewhat stalled. Strickland cleverly manipulates expectation and perception of sound, appetite, and the way human bodies find pleasure and survival in the world. Indeed, the subjects of this film – more so than those of his previous outings – seem untethered by day-to-day concerns such as employment and money. The stakes are merely art for art’s sake (as the gastrically suffering journalist soon discovers); as fascinating as these clashes of ethos and egos are, the overall atmosphere becomes staid.

Flux Gourmet does not quite reach the tortured high farce of The Duke of Burgundy or the schlocky madness of In Fabric. However, its stylistic confidence and continuity mark Strickland as an assured and singular artist. Flux Gourmet sardonically explores decadence in an age of scarcity, though it feels all too easy to leave its questions behind as each squelching, seeping performance ends.


Flux Gourmet had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival and is released in the UK on 30 Sep by Curzon

For more on Flux Gourmet, check out the EIFF episode of The Cineskinny podcast – listen here (from 43:50 onwards), via Spotify – or scroll on to read our interview with director Peter Strickland