Welcome to The Daily Cup a movie blog/writing project by Kyle B. Dekker, presented by Hot Chocolate Media. You can read series concept here. The basic rules, Kyle must watch 365 movies in 2018 and write about all of them. 292 of them have to be movies he's never seen before. Thanks for reading.
For those that don’t know me, I love 1980s films. I was a young child during the decade so my cinema memories are primarily of children's or family films (Secret of Nihm, The Land Before Time). Most of my adult aged viewings of 80s films comes from the decade’s amazing selection of action and sci-fi films (First Blood, Robocop). Part of my mission in pursuing The Daily Cup is to try films from genres and filmmakers I’m not familiar with.
Our main characters Mary (Mary Woronov) and Paul (Paul Bartel) meet Raoul (Robert Beltran).
Eating Raoul (1982) directed by Paul Bartel is a satirical dark comedy about a straight edged married couple Paul and Mary (played by Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov) who is put off by the swingers in their apartment complex. The are having financial challenges trying to save money for their dream home, and are at a loss to raise the necessary cash. By accident the discover they can make a ton of money quickly by luring swingers to their apartment and killing them. Soon they partner with a skeevy criminal named Raoul (played by Commander Chakotay Robert Beltran). They make a ton of money in their murderous scam and eventually run afoul of Raoul, who they dispose of him by *spoilers* eating him.
The violence is very dry and almost cartoon like. Nearly all of the murders happen with a single bong to the head by a frying pan, often off camera. I think the humor is meant to be a spoof of late 70s/early 80s sexual excess and making the people who have more “deviant” sexual appetites out to be awful sexual predators (there is lots of creepy sexual harassment and attempted rape) who deserve to die, and they all do. I don’t think this theme has aged well, people who commit sexual assault are disgusting and deserve punishment, but “abnormal sex” isn’t a thing we should be hung up with. The only kind of sex that is wrong is non-consensual, and if there isn’t consent, that’s not sex.
The editing of the film was solid, and the performances by the cast were competent, with a special nod to Susan Saiger as a suburban mom by day and dominatrix to the Los Angeles elite by night. She really nails a oddball role that was one thing I really enjoyed in the film.
Not sure if I'm too out of the era this film was made to enjoy it, or I missed the point completely with Eating Raoul. This film wasn’t for me, but you may find it interesting if you like dark comedies about sex and murder.
Tally
Movies new to me watched: 3/292
Total movies watched: 3/365
Have your own thoughts or opinions on this movie? Comment below or contact Kyle at kyle@hotchocolatemedia.net or on Twitter at @kbdekker.