SCREEN SHOT - Flux Gourmet

I'm an enthusiastic follower of the films of Peter Strickland, part homage, part parody, part something else altogether. A heightened exaggerated sensibility exists throughout, with an eccentrically off beat imagination and wit. Whilst The Barbarian Sound System and In Fabric are whiplash smart, there are others, such as the Duke of Burgundy, which I fail to connect with. To the latter I now must add Flux Gourmet. Because simply being incomprehensible is never enough.

We are introduced to the Sonic Catering Institute, a venue sponsoring performance art pieces exploring the sound potential of cooking and alimentary issues. A new three piece group arrives who have won this prestigious residency over another group who constantly attempt to sabotage the whole event. The trio, curiously, have regular sex orgies after each performance and austere silent walks together every morning. The Institute is run by Jan Stevens ( an under used Gwendoline Christie ) whose attempts to steer the creative direction of this new, as yet unnamed, group are constantly rebutted by Elle ( Fatma Mohamed ) the leader of it. The whole event being documented and filmed by Stone a man with a serious gastrointestinal complaint which does eventually feature in one of the groups public performances.

The world of performance art, I had a brief involvement with between 1986-9. It does have its own curious logic, a rarefied aesthetic, plus rivalries and dismissive bitchiness about the authenticity and integrity, or otherwise, of performers. Only those who have had any engagement with this would fully recognise this. If you have seen a lot of  performance art, you would also know that the creative work as shown here is simply not imaginatively out there, deliberately offensive or taboo breaking enough. The art world is an extremely easy, open target to take aim at. To take aim and hit the spot is rare. Performance work almost has the ability to parody itself simply by virtue of existing. So any film wishing to skewer it to the floor has to really know it, which Flux Gourmet fails spectacularly to do. The film Velvet Buzzsaw is a better, perhaps more conventional, recent example. Strickland's script for this film is just not knowing nor sharply incisive enough. 

Flux Gourmet is a half hearted swipe at an artistic clique, the self  referencing within its own bubble, the pretensions, the internalised rationale. All missed. Like some performance art, we are left wondering if this film actually has anything useful or meaningful to say. It does have occasional flashes of brilliance and humour. But if this was your first introduction to the films of Peter Strickland I would not blame you for never wishing to see another, ever again. It comes across as being as portentous as the people its attempting to send up. 

Really Disappointing.

CARROT REVIEW 2/8