Review: ‘Bugs,’ Is a Culinary Adventure. Insects Never Looked so Yummy.

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If an enterprising restaurateur is eager to grill up some insects and make a mint in the West Village, the time has never been riper. “Bugs,” an entertaining and eye-opening documentary from Andreas Johnsen, will send moviegoers out with a feeling of culinary adventurousness, eager to sample well-prepared escamoles (ant larvae) or termite queen with mango. (The maggot mousse might be pushing it.)

The movie follows Ben Reade, a chef, and Josh Evans, a researcher, then both of the Nordic Food Lab in Denmark, as they travel the world to visit cultures where insects are prepared as food. (Roberto Flore, another chef, joins the trip later.) The Nordic lab, a project initiated by Claus Meyer and René Redzepi, founders of the foodie polestar Noma, has a mission to explore “food diversity and deliciousness.” The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that the use of insects as food may have long-term benefits for the global food supply. It also offers cooks new possibilities for tastes and textures. (If you thought using whole animals was trendy, just wait until you try dishes that use multiple developmental stages.)

As they pay visits to Australia, Kenya, Uganda, Mexico and Japan, Mr. Reade and Mr. Evans are effectively M.C.s on the world’s weirdest episode of “Iron Chef.” (“To be honest, I would rather a normal Camembert,” Mr. Reade confesses after sampling casu marzu, a maggot-infested cheese from Italy.)

Despite their largely successful experiments, Mr. Reade and Mr. Evans express skepticism that the delicacies they’ve tried could — or should — be produced on a commercial scale. That issue isn’t satisfactorily resolved in 73 minutes, which is just enough time to make you hungry.

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