Tag: Nicholas Hoult

‘The Menu’ review: A delectable dark horror-comedy | TIFF review
In The Menu, a group of wealthy diners is invited to an exclusive island restaurant run by a world-renowned chef to experience a once-in-a-lifetime dinner. On the menu: horror.

As with his Emmy-wining work on Succession, director-writer Mark Mylod brings the same black comedy schadenfreude at the hands of the rich to The Menu.

Have you ever watched an episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table and thought, “gee, I wish this was more like a horror movie.” Well, I present to you weirdos The Menu, a deliciously camp (that’s a pun) humble one-room eat the rich satirical horror-comedy about a group of diners at an exclusive isolated island restaurant who think they’re about to be treated to a one-in-a-lifetime multiple-course molecular gastronomy dinner constructed by legendary Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). And they are treated to that meal, more or less. What they don’t know is that they are a part of the menu. However, what is so exciting about The Menu is it’s not in the way you think. This isn’t Raw (if you know, you know). What it is is a hilarious and satiating pitch-black comedy of manners about rich people getting their just desserts from the people meant to serve them—and separately one of the best horror movies and comedies of the year.

Director Mark Mylod works in a very similar tone to his Emmy-winning work on HBO’s Succession. The Menu from its opening moments to its explosive finale is tongue-in-cheek and never notions that it is trying to say anything more than what is on its surface like other recent genre movies dealing with class—it’s more Bodies Bodies Bodies than it is Get Out or Parasite. Take Tyler (a delightful Nicholas Hoult), a self-described foodie and super fan of Chef Slowik who has been trying to get a reservation to Hawthorne for months—the restaurant only takes twelve guests a night for $1,250 a seat. When he finally does, he brings along Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) who he chastises for smoking because it will mess up her palette leaving her unable to appreciate the food.

They board a ferry that brings them and the ten other guests for the night’s dinner service to the isolated island where the restaurant, including the farm, smokehouse, and staff quarters all reside. The restaurant’s no-nonsense deadpan maître d’hôtel Elsa (Hong Chau) explains that the entire staff lives on the island. “Why would we not?” she asks. She adds, “we’re a family.” Elsa is like the harbinger of a classic horror movie and basically wears a sign that says “you will die.” The guests don’t heed the warning.

After, the guests are seated in the minimalist seaside restaurant that is open concept with the kitchen flowing straight into the dining room. Throughout the night we slip into and out of the conversations at each table where we learn the backstory of each group, all characters in their own right—much like the eccentric suspects of Knives Out. There’s highfalutin food critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer) and her magazine editor (Paul Adelstein) who try to come up with increasingly pretentious words to describe the food (“it’s thalassic,” Lillian says about the first course of the meal, a single scallop on a rock). A group of finance bros who work for the venture capital firm that funds the restaurant. John Leguizamo plays a movie star who says he’s friends with Chef Slowik and tries to stop his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero) from quitting her job.

Through the multiple courses of his finely tuned dinner—captured with the same delicate mouthwatering cinematography of an episode of Chef’s Table or the cooking scenes in Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman—he brings his diners on an exploration of flavor, nature, and horror. That itself could have been a hilarious satirical comedy, mainly when he introduces the second course: a “breadless” bread plate—he explains that for aristocracy like the diners, something as simple as bread is beneath them. And while the movie starts as a hilarious satirical

The first indication that something is not quite what it seems is when Chef Slowik describes the inspiration of his third course, recalling a memory from childhood when he had to protect his mother from his abusive father by stabbing him in the thigh with a pair of scissors—on taco night of all nights. The meal, a deconstructed taco with a chicken thigh stabbed a pair of scissors, is served with tortillas laser drawn on with images further exposing the indiscretions of each the guests. They range from gentle chides—Tyler’s is photos of himself taking photos of the food (which they were instructed not to do at the beginning of the night)—to personal revelations—Anne’s tortillas are printed with photos of Richard with a young woman who looks a lot like Margot—to criminal evidence—let’s just say the venture capitalists’ money took a vacation to the Cayman Islands.

“What is this?” asks Bryce (Rob Yang), one of the venture capitalists.

“That is a tortilla deliciosa,” Elsa responds sincerely.

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November 15, 2022
‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ and its punk rock Ned Kelly | movie review

True History of the Kelly Gang is a fictional punk rock western about the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang of outlaws

Quick review: True History of the Kelly Gang is a punky auteurist vision of adrenaline that makes the already chaotic story disorienting, and, most importantly, unrelenting.

★★★★

“Nothing you’re about to see is true.” That’s the cheeky title card that starts True History of the Kelly Gang (available on VOD April 24). And for a movie about an Australian bushranger — the equivalent of an American outlaw — known for his brutality and violence over several years in the 1870s, it’s a surprising start. However, director Justin Kurzel remains steadfast in his portrayal of this anti-hero (or pure villain depending on how you look at it) throughout the film and gives the story a punk rock patina that feels particularly apt to tell this version of Kelly’s story.

The movie, which is based on Peter Carey’s 2000 novel of the same name, portrays Kelly (played by 1917-breakout George Mackay) and his gang as the fearsome, gun-totting rebels that they’re notoriously known as. However, Kurzel infuses them with punk rock energy that includes having them go into battle wearing dresses to strike fear in their enemies. Plus, it makes the homoerotic energy between the members of the gang and with their primary foe even more compelling.

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The movie is split into three sections: boy, man, and monitor. In boy, a young Ned Kelly (Orlando Schwerdt) comes of age in the Australian bush with his mother Ellen (Essie Davis), a hardened Irish transplant, who is regularly harassed for sexual favors by Sergeant O’Neill (Charlie Hunnam), one of many toxic male figures in Ned’s life. His disdain for his alcoholic father and care for his mother is Oedipal in nature. It’s just another point in his childhood that explains his brute and violent nature as an adult.

However, no one affects him more than the old, grizzled bushranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe) who becomes his mentor as a favor to his mother. He experiences horrors and violence that no child should have to witness.

The first act’s visual flair, including striking cinematography by Ari Wegner that captures the desolation of the Australian outback and the distinctly modern stylistic sensibilities that Kurzel is attracted to in his period pieces, dunks us in the movie’s semi-fictional world that this Ned Kelly occupies.

The first half of the movie is far from typical, but it feels more like a traditional biopic. When we make the shift to the adult Ned Kelly all hell breaks loose. Kurzel delivers an expressionistic blur of sound and light that makes the already chaotic story disorienting, and, most importantly, unrelenting. However, it’s his foe that makes it most compelling.

Nicholas Hoult as “Constable Fitzpatrick” in Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

After Oscar-worthy character turns in Mad Max: Fury Road and The Favourite, Nicholas Hoult gets to dig his teeth into the meaty and campy Constable Fitzpatrick — a cartoon-ish mustache-twirling villain (without the ‘stache). In one stunning scene across from Kelly’s love interest Mary (Jojo Rabbit‘s Thomasin McKenzie), he employs an interrogation tactic involving a baby that feels so punk it could only live in this world.

True History of the Kelly Gang is greater than the sum of its parts. Watching it is a hypnotic experience that will be polarizing to mainstream audiences — it’s oddly meta for an outlaw who was similarly polarizing. Still, it’s impossible to not be affected by it in some way after its final frame. Kurzel takes a huge swing, whether or not he hits depends on you. Either way, the movie feels like a baseball bat to the head — in the best way.

April 20, 2020
‘Dark Phoenix’ movie review — The X-Men civil war
Dark Phoenix finds the X-Men fighting each other as they try to save Jean Grey — and the world — from herself

30-second review: There’s something off about nearly every element of Dark Phoenix. The dialogue is overly-written to the point that you can predict a line before it’s said, the performances are unmotivated, the story is too familiar, and the action scenes lack stakes. However, they’re also not off enough to be interesting. The biggest problem with the film is that it’s bland.

It’s unfortunate considering the “Dark Phoenix” storyline is a staple of the X-Men canon. Sophie Turner and James McAvoy try to do something interesting with the material, but they’re hindered by the movie’s inability to bring anything new to the table. We’ve seen it all before. For the superhero genre to stay alive it needs innovative. Dark Phoenix is stuck in the past.

Where to watch Dark Phoenix: Available to buy or rent on Amazon.

Full review below ?

Full disclosure: I haven’t read and am not familiar with the X-Men comics. What I do know is that the Dark Phoenix saga — also explored in X-Men: The Last Stand — is one of the series’ biggest storylines. The main crux of it finds Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) turned into a conduit for a powerful alien energy force that corrupts her and turns her into an unstoppable and uncontrollable force.

In Dark Phoenix, written and directed by Simon Kinberg — who wrote three previous X-Men movies — Jean and the other X-Men are tasked with rescuing a shuttle full of astronauts after their spacecraft is disabled by a mysterious floating solar flare. They’re successful in their mission, but Jean is nearly killed when the energy reaches the shuttle with her still in it. However, instead of killing her, she absorbs the energy and returns back to Earth with the other X-Men.

The film, which takes place ten years after the events of X-Men: Apocolypse, sees the X-Men living in a world where mutants and humans now live in harmony — mostly thanks to the work Dr. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has done to bridge the divide by using the X-Men to protect humanity. At one point, he even references the term “superhero.”

The movie tries to create a Civil War-esque divide between Xavier and Mystique/Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), who thinks that the work they’re doing to be heroes in the eyes of the humans is demeaning as they risk their lives to save theirs. And it’s an interesting theme, but the movie explores it with no passion — and the performances, in turn, have no passion either.

The main storyline, though, follows Jean as she struggles to control her newfound powers that push her to destructive ends, especially as she learns the truth about her past. Early on — and spoiled in the trailers — one of her destructive spells leads to the death of Mystique, which creates a fissure between the X-Men. On one side, there’s Charles, Scott/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Ororo/Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Kurt/Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee). On the other, there’s Erik/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) — they both seek revenge on Jean for the death of Raven — along with Erik’s minions.

However, like everything else in the movie, the team turning on each other is half-hearted and doesn’t feel rooted in anything tangible. The movies up to this point haven’t laid the groundwork for us to care about Jean’s fate — or the fate of anyone on the team.

A more interesting storyline involves a shape-shifting alien race that has come to earth to harness the energy in Jean and, in turn, claiming the Earth as their own. Jessica Chastain, who plays the human form of the lead alien, does her best to make her character a compelling villain. But the storyline feels secondary and means to the final battle that, while entertaining, lacks stakes.

Dark Phoenix is likely the last X-Men movie in this form as the property is absorbed by Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe that’s why it lacks passion. It certainly doesn’t help that it comes on the heels of Avengers: Endgame. Truly, the movie isn’t a disaster. But even that would be more interesting than what we got.

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More movies, less problems
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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June 5, 2019