Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, Paul Adelstein, Hong Chau
Intro:
… a sharp, acidic offering with an occasionally bitter taste, but enough of a pleasant mouthfeel to have audiences licking their plates and asking for seconds.
Chefs are, generally speaking, loonier than shithouse rats. Something about the grim reality of food service combined with the pressures of dealing with customers, constantly trying to one-up your own recipes and the messianic tendencies inherent in the gig, creates a cadre of absolute gibbering lunatics. And celebrity chefs, those with a following either in the media or via food critics? Why, they’re the most deranged of the bunch. Brand spanking new (very) black comedy The Menu understands this fact all too well, and delivers one of the most memorably twisted kitchen dictators since Gordon Ramsay first swore his way into our hearts in the late ‘90s. It’s also a bloody good little film in its own right.
A quick note: The Menu is the second genre-bending movie this year (after Barbarian) that is best seen without any prior information, particularly from the rather too spoilery trailer. So, as always, we’ll tread lightly, but just be aware, The Menu is best seen with as few preconceptions as possible.
The Menu is about a young couple, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who are excited to be travelling to a remote island to eat at the mega-exclusive restaurant Hawthorne run by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The exclusive guest list of rich wankers and celebrities are primed for an evening of mouth-watering molecular gastronomy, but as the courses begin to come out, it soon becomes clear that something is very off about Hawthorne and perhaps they should have stayed home and ordered Uber Eats.
Films like The Menu live and die on the basis of their scripts, and happily, Seth Reiss and Will Tracy have penned a sharp and spiky bit of social satire here. The cast are also excellent with Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes delivering standout performances, and Nicholas Hoult bringing so much to the role of contemptible, fawning Tyler. Major kudos should also go to Janet McTeer as smug-beyond-reason food critic Lillian Bloom and John Leguizamo as a fading, apathetic Hollywood movie star. Director Mark Mylod seems to instinctively know when to ratchet up the tension or deliver the laughs, and the result is a film that keeps you guessing minute by minute.
The Menu is one of those rare movies that works as both a scathing social satire and edge-of-your-seat thriller. It’s a heady, unpredictable experience with a superb cast and a director who knows exactly what he’s trying to deliver. Put in culinary terms, The Menu is a sharp, acidic offering with an occasionally bitter taste, but enough of a pleasant mouthfeel to have audiences licking their plates and asking for seconds.