---
title: "Eating Raoul: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/eating-raoul/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/eating-raoul"
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Eating Raoul (1982): what the critics said

Critics' score 73 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative.

Most critics respond warmly to Eating Raoul, with praise clustering around its straight-faced handling of sex, food and murder. The reviews find Paul Bartel’s restrained comic approach well suited to the outrageous premise: a prim couple financing their restaurant dream through killing. His prissy performance, the cast’s charm and the contrast between sick jokes and gentle sitcom manners draw approval, while the satire of middle-class conformity and Southern California sexual culture gives the comedy further bite.

The spread is fairly narrow, with the main difference concerning how much comic energy that restraint supplies. Empire finds the sick gags laugh-out-loud funny, while The New York Times values a flat, pop-art style that remains gently amusing rather than riotous. RogerEbert.com supplies the sole mixed assessment: it finds the film mostly clever and funny, but too laid-back and whimsical to push its outrageous material far enough.

## The AV Club — Keith Phipps

Rating B+. 3 October 2012. 

The critic praises the film's sly satire of middle-class conformity and the sexual revolution in 1980s LA, highlighting its gleeful dark comedy and inspiration from Corman B-movies and British comedies. It notes the consequence-free world and how the Blands' actions target the debauched.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/eating-raoul-1798174429)

## Empire — Kim Newman

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The critic praises this black comedy about a repressed couple who turn to murder to fund their restaurant dream. The film's perverse humour succeeds thanks to the director's prissy delicacy in performance and direction, along with its charming cast and laugh-out-loud sick gags.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/eating-raoul-review/)

## Slant Magazine — Joseph Jon Lanthier

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 September 2012. 

The critic lauds the film's skewed logic and egalitarian hate in its satire of Southern California stereotypes, noting its prescience regarding AIDS and repulsion at flesh, while appreciating the restoration and extras.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/eating-raoul/)

## The New York Times — Vincent Canby

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 25 September 1982. Festival review. 

Canby calls it a very funny, sensitive comedy about a prissy couple who murder sex-crazed perverts to fund their restaurant dream, praising its flat, pop-art comic style that stays gently amusing rather than riotous.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/25/movies/eating-raoul-comedy-with-an-offbeat-couple.html)

## Time Out — PT

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. 

The film is a delightful blackly comic collision of sex, food and murder from Paul Bartel. It stands out for its straight-faced style contrasting sick joke frenetics with a gentle sitcom sensibility.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/eating-raoul)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1981. 

The review praises Bartel’s tongue-in-cheek approach for taking the outrageous story of the Blands’ murderous scheme to ridiculous extremes while remaining genuinely funny and successfully telling the perverse tale.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1981/film/reviews/eating-raoul-1200425226/)

## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert

Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1982. 

Ebert finds the deadpan black comedy about a prim couple who kill swingers for money mostly clever and funny in its matter-of-fact style, but too laid-back and whimsical to reach inspired excesses.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eating-raoul-1982)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/eating-raoul.md