Sex Education star Asa Butterfield gets into avant-garde ASMR in this first trailer (see above) for his surreal new movie Flux Gourmet. Director Peter Strickland has made a name for himself directing movies that almost defy categorization, but The Duke of Burgundy filmmaker generally operates in the wheelhouse of psychological horror, often with a dash of off-the-wall humor. That seems to be what he’s going for again with his latest effort.
Flux Gourmet follows the surprisingly cutthroat world of sonic culinary art. As we see in the trailer, Butterfield’s newcomer joins an art group that likes to “stretch the elastic of culinary sounds” as far as they can. Strickland tends to make the most of the sound design of his features, and it appears he’s revisiting some similar concepts to his 2012 film Berberian Sound Studio with this one.
Alongside Butterfield, Flux Gourmet stars Game of Thrones‘ Gwendoline Christie, who previously worked with Strickland on his last film, 2018’s In Fabric. And even if this trailer makes absolutely no sense to you (which is fair enough), Christie’s unique line reading of the word “investigation” should ensure that it’s a must-see.
Here’s how the synopsis reads:
“A sonic collective who can’t decide on a name takes up a residency at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance. The members Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield) and Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed) are caught up in their own power struggles, only their dysfunctional dynamic is furthermore exacerbated when they have to answer to the institute’s head, Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie). With the various rivalries unfolding, Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), the Institute’s ‘dossierge’ has to privately endure increasingly fraught stomach problems whilst documenting the collective’s activities.
“Upon hearing of Stones’s visits to the gastroenterologist, Dr Glock, Elle coerces him into her performances in a desperate bid for authenticity. The reluctant Stones puts up with the collective’s plans to use his condition for their art whilst Jan Stevens goes to war with Elle over creative differences.”
Flux Gourmet is one of two horror-flavored projects Asa Butterfield has got coming this year. The British star will be working for his Sex Education paymasters again on Choose or Die, a horror about a 1980s computer game that unleashes a hidden evil co-starring Robert Englund. Gwendoline Christie likewise has a couple of spooky Netflix titles on the way, both TV series. Namely, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman adaptation and Addams Family reimagining Wednesday.
From IFC Films, Flux Gourmet is set to have its world premiere at the incoming Berlin Film Festival before reaching theaters this summer.