SOME LIKE IT RARE (2021) aka BARBAQUE

Some Like It Rare (2021)
Directed by: Fabrice Eboué
Written by: Fabrice Eboué, Vincent Solignac
Starring: Fabrice Eboué, Jean-François Cayrey, Lisa Do Couto Texeira, Marina Foïs, Virginie Hocq

SOME LIKE IT RARE (2021)
aka BARBAQUE
Directed by Fabrice Eboué
French Language with English Subtitles

After decades of marriage, Sophie and Vincent Pascal’s life isn’t going how they’d planned. Not only is their marriage falling apart but their butchers business is also on the skid. When vegan protesters attack them and their shop, it’s the final straw for Vincent. After spotting one of the culprits on a road, he goes to confront him but accidentally mows him down in the process. Panicking, the couple take his lifeless body home where Vincent slices it up, preparing to dump the body like in one of the true crime shows Sophie is obsessed with. When Sophie accidentally serves slices of the body to a customer the morning after, mistaking the slab of meat for ham, they’re astounded that it tastes so good the customer wants more. Labelling it as Iranian Pork, word gets round and the couple find themselves with a high demand for their new meat product. With the potential to save their business, the hunt is on to give the customers more of what they want: the finest vegan-fuelled meat on the streets of France!

This heart-warming, blackly comic twist on Sweeney Todd is bound to put a smile on your face, providing you’re not vegan, as our struggling couple take advantage of their first taste of success, even if it means slaughtering innocent people.

SOME LIKE IT RARE is a tongue-in-cheek comedy that isn’t afraid to push the envelope but does so in such a wonderful way. A lot of this is down to brilliant writing and terrific performances by director Fabrice Eboué as Vincent and Marina Foïs as Sophie. They’re such an affable couple, even if the tension is high between the two when they’re alone, which counters the horrendous actions they dish out on the community. It’s a joy to watch with many laugh out loud moments whilst still retaining a horror aspect that will keep you on edge as to what will happen next.

There’s plenty of digs at the meat-free lifestyle in French horror-comedy, SOME LIKE IT RARE, a culinary choice that seems to be so prominently pushed in today’s society as more and more meat brands get onboard attempting to cash in on those choosing to abstain from animal products. However, vegans love for vegetables and green products makes them much tastier than their carnivore counterparts and thus the challenge is on for Vincent and Sophie to find the perfect slice of ‘Iranian Pork’ – a fat, juicy specimen that hasn’t been stressed before culling. Selecting the ideal candidate is the easy part, trying to intentionally kill them for the first time is a much harder task as Vincent quickly discovers. Once again, Sophie’s encyclopedic knowledge of serial killers has its advantages as they try to imitate the way in which countless killers before them successfully lured in their victims with hilarious consequences.

It’s hard to dislike Vincent and Sophie Pascal. Perhaps Vincent is the more sympathetic character as all Sophie seems to do is nag him about feeling unloved and how she can’t remember the last time they were intimate, as well as blame him for the struggling butchers business. However, Sophie uses this to her advantage to get Vincent intentionally wound up in order to kill a vegan love interest of hers, and is usually the one to egg Vincent on to commit to killing rather than chickening out and running in the opposite direction. Despite this manipulation, Sophie does seem genuinely upset that her marriage has grown stale and just wants the excitement and love injected back into it. She even comments on how Vincent lovingly treats his meat better than her as he takes his time in preparing it for waiting customers. All of this pressure on their relationship and livelihood is exacerbated by so-called friends, the Brachards. Sophie’s best friend Stéphanie Brachard can’t stop boasting about how much everything they’ve purchased cost and how much husband Marc earns in his four successful shops. It turns out he’s also in the butchers trade but, unlike Vincent, sells inferior meat pumped full of water and hormones. Even Vincent’s beloved dog turns his nose up at their meat. The frustration with Marc’s success mounts but when the Pascals get a supply of Iranian Pork, nothing can compare.

Very rarely would the viewer be on the side of the serial killers but here we are, rooting for the Pascals to make a success of everything, from their business to their marriage. They clearly love each other and work hard, but life has not been kind on them. They’re the underdogs that you want to succeed but unfortunately they’re committing crimes in order to keep everyone happy, namely their bank account and customers, the latter of which have an insatiable hunger for their Iranian Pork and no other meat will do!

As demand for their Iranian pork ramps up, so does the kills which makes way for a rib-tickling segment which cuts between Vincent Pascal hunting down his vegan prey in a similar way to how predators in the wild capture theirs, albeit Vincent is additionally equipped with a butcher’s knife and shotgun to help him take out his victims.

An absolute hoot of a movie that hits all the right notes, SOME LIKE IT RARE is certainly a cut above the rest.

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