Anya Taylor-Joy in The Menu. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
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.
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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