This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Becca Steiner’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Bland is the furthest thing from Eating Raoul
Dark humor seems like an understatement after watching Paul Bartel’s Eating Raoul. The film is camp, through and through. Never taking itself serious throughout the film’s hour and thirty-minute duration. Mary and Paul find themselves in the most far-fetched circumstances and just when I thought it could not get any weirder Bartel made me eat those words. But don’t worry, they were the furthest thing from bland.
Eating Raoul follows the life of Mary and Paul Bland. The couple yearned to open their very own restaurant, but as time passes it seems more and more like a mere fantasy. The Bland household can barely keep their household afloat. Mary works as a nurse, and Paul was working at a liquor store selling wine, but he had just lost his job. While waiting for their friend James, who is helping the couple find their restaurant, Paul and Marry encounter a group of swingers, who are frequent partiers in their building. That night, during several outrageous encounters, ranging from Paul being whipped by Dom the Dominatrix, to killing a swinger with a frying pan, Mary and Paul realize that there is money in the sex market. The Bland couple are more interesting than they let on, and wind up in many more "sexcapades" throughout the film.
Eating Raoul was crude, lude, and offensive, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! During the first ten minutes of the film, I had a tough time gauging whether I would like Paul Bartel’s film or not. But the thought quickly went away after I saw the scene where Mary wore a costume resembling Minnie Mouse, I lost it. Eating Raoul does not shy away from twisted scenes of Mommy kinks and Nazi roleplay. I would have rated Eating Raoul higher, however, there was just far too many scenes referencing and depicting sexual assault for my taste. The bit packed less of a punch as Paul Bartel kept recycling the same joke as the film continued. The film became hard to watch at some points because of this.
Work Cited:
Eating Raoul. Paul Bartel. 1, October 1982. 20th Century Films.