Eating Raoul Review

Review of Eating Raoul (1982) by screenqueeen: 👎 1.5/5

HOOPTOBER 11 DAY 26 5 DAYS REMAIN TITLE 16 OF 39

I feel bad. I like Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov a lot. I like Robert Beltran's acting (but not the person) and Ed Begley Jr. is usually a delight to see doing a bit part in any film. But this just had a rotten antagonistic feeling to it, and it's not just because of the heavy reliance on gender- and heteronormative sexual assault and rape culture but a "healthy" comfortability with a special blend of racism and weaponized classism that continually punches down.

The self-casting of Paul as Paul and Mary as Mary as prudes and snobs doesn't ever get to the point where it makes any points at all about the social and economic brackets Paul and Mary belong to by choice or the nature of existence; the film seems to want to make more of a spectacle of stereotypes and how they inconvenience who Paul and Mary represent than actually criticizing the upper crust who think it's their responsibility to police the boundaries of other groups.

Actually, I don't feel bad about disliking this at all. I'm kinda glad I do, not finding most of this funny is a good thing I'm discovering for myself. I'm sorry Paul (I think), but I can't get behind this one.