Gwendolyn Christie in Flux Gourmet (IFC Midnight)

Saying that Flux Gourmet is Peter Strickland’s most accessible film to date, which it is, in no way means that it is accessible. All the fetishes and flourishes of a Strickland joint is fully on display: outrageously elegant costumes, production design that is curated as meticulously as Wes Anderson’s, a sense of humor as transgressive and campy as John Waters, but with the sophistication of Terence Davies. All in all, he’s a hard sell at a multiplex.

But if you get on his wavelength, the rewards can be bountiful. Flux Gourmet is different from Strickland’s previous movies in that the plot he hangs his baubles on is relatively familiar. Essentially, it’s Spinal Tap or any number of films where artists’ egos get in the way of their work and implode. In this case, we are watching the residency of a trio at a culinary institute housed in a Downton Abbey–like estate. They are there to create abstract sounds from food preparation. They call themselves a collective but are too rife with infighting to come up with a name. Elle (Fatma Mohamed) heads the group, while the residency is overseen by Gwendolyn Christie (Game of Thrones, In Fabric): statuesque, imposing, and resplendent in haute couture. All this is recorded for posterity by Stones, a writer who can’t quite explain what he writes, and who is racked with excruciating and embarrassing gastrointestinal issues, which he describes, and the film explores, in great detail.

The fact that the movie is a bit more conventional allows the viewer to cut through or look past some of Strickland’s flourishes to get closer to the characters. Though there is a lot of ridiculous behavior that we are meant to laugh at, particularly from Elle, there are moments where you see a fuller dimension of humanity that blunts the edges of a character. There are flashes of this in Strickland’s previous films, but his ensembles sometimes feel like they are serving the plot as opposed to vice versa. The story line here is straightforward and familiar so the aforementioned embellishments don’t upstage anyone or overtake the story.

And make no mistake, this is a funny movie, funnier than Strickland’s previous offerings. The humor is still pitch black: A doctor deliberately stalls and relishes the pauses before giving a patient a potentially life-threatening diagnosis. There’s the very particular sexual turn on that Billy (Asa Butterfield) confesses to, which Jan (Christie) takes full advantage of, as well as the general skewering of artists and artistic pretension. One of the main plots is the dispute over whether the collective should use a flanger (an audio manipulating device) in their performance. The buildup over this disagreement leads to a set piece that rivals The Pink Panther in its ridiculousness.

Stone, wonderfully essayed by Makis Papadimitriou, feels he’s an artist but lacks confidence while Elle is full of it. He is hired to record the residents and interview the collective, but he is not quite sure what he is doing. He narrates throughout, but though the film is in English, his narration is in Greek (with subtitles), punctuating the distance and dislocation he feels from the others. His work is further compromised by bouts of incontinence and epic flatulence. Luckily, the residency has a doctor (Richard Bremmer). Unluckily, he is self-involved and hilariously indifferent to his patient’s suffering. This culminates in a colonoscopy that has to be seen to be believed.

Ritual is another aspect of the Strickland oeuvre. The collective take daily silent walks together with Stone trailing just behind. Every evening there is a sumptuous dinner where each has to make a speech. Everyone sleeps in the same room, and shots of them getting up each morning is repeated, as is Stone’s nightly tiptoe to the bathroom to deal with his particular issue. These are framed in the exact same way, serving to somewhat lull you into the rhythm of the movie before Strickland will spring a trap that jolts you out of your reverie.

Any Strickland film is a stress test. He works decidedly out of the mainstream and rarely compromises his particular vision. If you want an on-ramp to his movies, and they are worth checking out, you could do worse than Flux Gourmet.