Flush [Fantasia 2025 Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

I doubt I’ll see a crazier movie this year than Flush. The darkly comedic French thriller had its world premiere at Fantasia 2025. I don’t know what kind of market there is for a picture of this sort, but wherever the thing plays, it’s bound to inspire an enthusiastic reception from fans of gonzo cinema. Like the killer tire movie Rubber or The Human Centipede, a uniquely weird premise is on display here.

Luc (R. Jonathan Lambert) is a middle-aged coke fiend. One night at a club, he swallows several packets of drugs belonging to a dealer, who responds by bashing his head into a squat toilet. (Google it if you don’t know what that is.) Luc gets stuck and has to contend with a series of hazards: claustrophobia, rats, and, of course, somebody flushing. The film depicts his efforts to get unstuck.

You’re reading that correctly. This is about a guy with his head lodged in a toilet. David Neiss’s screenplay cleverly comes up with various predicaments for Luc to face. There are also hilariously epic fails for most of his escape attempts. For example, he tries to call the cops for help, but his virtual cell phone assistant thinks he wants to listen to the band The Police. Each new development is more outrageous than the one before. At times, the hazards are combined, as when the toilet is flushed, causing a rat to get clogged in the pipe, leading to Luc nearly drowning.

Flush has a sense of humor about itself. Early on, the story establishes that Luc is a jerk, so his entire experience has a karmic quality. The dude deserves this fate. Even the action scenes are funny. In one, Luc fights a bad guy with his arms and legs, despite not being able to see his opponent. For all the comedy, the picture still manages to transcend being a one-joke affair. Luc is humbled by what he goes through, and it makes him reevaluate his past behavior, especially when his ex shows up in the bathroom. Lambert delivers a nicely panicked performance in the lead role.

Slickly directed by Grégory Morin, Flush runs a tight 70 minutes. No need exists for the movie to be any longer. The human brain can’t handle this level of insanity for much more than that. I laughed loudly and often at this bizarre motion picture.

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