Film

Flux Gourmet

Flux Gourmet is Peter Strickland's deliberately strange, visually precise comedy about ego, digestion, and artistic obsession at an experimental food-performance institute. It's beautiful and grotesque in turns—food as violence, art as consumption, the body as gallery. For viewers who relish cinema that refuses comfort.

TMDb rating2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy deadpan absurdist satire about self-serious avant-garde artists, the kind that finds comedy in mannered dialogue and an obsession with sound and texture.

Skip it if you need propulsive plot or warm, relatable characters to invest in; its deliberately flat performances and long stretches of arch talk may feel like a wall rather than a joke.

What it asks of you: Patience with a flat, mannered tone and 112 minutes in close quarters, where jokes arrive slowly and unease gathers rather than resolves.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Under the Skin2014

Haunting, formally rigorous science-fiction about an alien moving through human landscapes. Like Flux, it trusts visual and sonic unease more than exposition, making discomfort an aesthetic choice rather than a flaw.

But Long stretches of ambiguity can feel self-conscious. Some find it remote rather than engaging.

Under the Skin poster

A Cure for Wellness2017

Gothic body horror wrapped in spa-resort luxury, where health obsession curdles into nightmare. Both films weaponize disgust and perfectionism against their protagonists with formal precision.

But Deliberately excessive and sometimes obnoxiously pretty. The plot gets increasingly baroque and the runtime tests patience.

A Cure for Wellness poster

Suspiria2018

Luca Guadagnino's dance-school horror that treats the body as a site of violent art. Like Flux, it uses sound design and choreography to create dread, and finds something darkly comic in suffering.

But The pace is glacial. Some scenes feel more like installation pieces than narrative, which is either fascinating or tedious depending on your patience.

Suspiria poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Flux Gourmet

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raw2017

Both treat consumption as a breach of self. Both understand that breaking a taboo about eating is a way of breaking free, and both are willing to show the violence in that freedom.

A French-Belgian horror film about a vegetarian becoming carnivorous during vet school. Body horror, sexual awakening, and cannibalism as allegory. Genuinely transgressive in ways that feel necessary, not decorative.

But Graphic and nauseating in its commitment to visceral imagery. The final act is difficult and leaves no comfort. Not recommended if you're squeamish about food or bodies.

Raw poster
More like this (7)

The Lobster2015

Yorgos Lanthimos's deadpan dystopia where single people are hunted. Same register of absurdist cruelty; same willingness to make you uncomfortable while remaining formally beautiful and funny.

But The humor is so dry it sometimes evaporates. The premise is the whole point, which some find gimmicky.

The Lobster poster

Come True2020

Sci-fi horror about a sleep study that doubles as a fever dream. Strange, synth-drenched, and more interested in sensation and mood than coherent plotting. Shares Flux's commitment to surface and sound.

But Minimal dialogue and plot. Deliberately obscure. If you need clarity, this will infuriate you.

Come True poster

Annihilation2018

Gorgeous, queasy body-horror sci-fi where natural law becomes a thing of dread. Shares Flux's uneasiness with bodies and transformation, though more grounded in genuine sci-fi concepts.

But The middle section drags. The scientific explanations feel hollow when you think about them afterward.

Annihilation poster

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence2014

Roy Andersson's absurdist tableaux of human suffering framed as static theatrical scenes. Droll, grotesque, beautiful—comedy and tragedy refuse to separate. Kindred sensibility to Flux.

But Almost no plot or momentum. Watching it demands you surrender to its logic, which feels less like a film than sitting in a very sophisticated waiting room.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence poster

The Platform2019

Spanish sci-fi horror about a vertical prison where food is the weapon. Body, appetite, and class cruelty in sharp focus. Shares Flux's obsession with consumption as metaphor and violence.

But Relies on shock value and becomes didactic. Less interested in beauty or form than making a point, which can feel like being lectured.

The Platform poster

Climax2018

Gaspar Noé's dance-school nightmare in primary colors and dread. Hyper-stylized, body-focused, and genuinely strange. If you want formal audacity paired with chaos, it delivers.

But Extremely difficult final act. The film's pleasure in cruelty and suffering will alienate those who want art to earn its darkness.

Climax poster

Mulholland Drive2001

Both artists build worlds where surface is all there is—where performance and reality have no distance between them. Both use beauty to conceal something rotten underneath. Both know that cinema itself is a kind of consumption.

Lynch's Hollywood nightmare where desire, identity, and performance collapse into each other. Formally perfect and emotionally devastating. A masterclass in how to make a dream feel like lived experience.

But Notoriously demands interpretation. Some viewers find it a beautiful puzzle box; others feel locked out. It rewards attention but punishes passive watching.

Mulholland Drive poster

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