I would say this is my Quentin Dupieux favourite so far.
Dupieux himself said Steak might be his least received work ever. First, steak is a film which should have been released in no more than 40 theatres. Since it is featured 2 well-known french comedians Eric & Ramzy, the PR marketed it as a typical comedy so it was released in more than 300 theatres in France. If you know a little about Dupieux, you would have known his style is no where close to typical french comedies (it is pretty much the same as the American comedies, only it tries to have a message behind, kind of like "what we've learnt from the fairy tales".) In order words his movies are not for everyone.
Steak is trying to tackle the issue of social status. How we try to fit into the norm, be part of something that we are not or literally changing our apperances to be more attractive. ( it exists in some places already. In South Korean plastic surgery is really common.) But how far w1ould we go? To which point we will say stop and just be ourselves. Hat off for the way how Dupieux presents the scenario.
Life is a never ending high school. When they are a group of people there will be troubles. Anti bulling campaigns keep saying "it's getting better". Because we don't see those people in a regular basis or you could hide yourself from them after you graduated. We could embrace it and live with it or even try to be one of the bullies. Steak is a little more than just becoming one of them. Fitting in is not easy, faking it is even harder. At the end of the day you would ask yourself why? Why am I doing this?
I love how the little details Dupieux put in his movies. Again they are really subtle but yet they are powerful enough to have his points come across.
*As per my understanding Steak has only been released in french speaking countries. Only the Canadian DVD has english subtitles but unfortunately it has been out of stock since. I think you might be able to find the english subtitles online.
