Monday, January 16, 2023

My Review of The Menu (2022)

 


Written by Seth Reiss And Will Tracy
Directed by Mark Mylod

Margot (to Slowik): "You're a chef. Your single purpose on this Earth is to serve people food that they might actually like, and you have failed. You've failed. And you've bored me. And the worst part is I'm still fucking hungry."

And for something completely different but devilishly appetising, might I suggest this rather tense course? Let's just say, it's a movie you'd want to savour and with that, I will try to refrain from any more terrible food puns but I'm not promising anything here.

Picture it: an island where a slew of guests find themselves dining at Hawthornes where the head chef, Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) selected them all personally to dine on a seven course meal, along with palette cleanser and rather out there means of entertainment. Sounds like an offer, you'd almost be insane to refuse. However as it transpired, every single diner, with the exception of one probably wished they had just done that instead.

The exception to the re being of course an escort named Margot/Erin (Anya Taylor-Joy) who had not been on Slowik's 'list' but found herself caught up in his fiendish dinner plans nonetheless when she wasn't being practically bored to death by her foodie know it all client, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). Let's just say that Tyler's the kind of person who would take the fun out of fine dining and that's being generous about that guy, even if his last scene was bittersweet.

The back and forth between Margot and Slowik was what made this movie for me. Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy play off each other so well, both feeding a rivalry and odd kinship towards one another. It was definitely the latter part that sent Slowik's right hand woman, Elsa (Hong Chau) into something of a rage as Margot fond a way to gain the upper hand against Slowik and ultimately seal her own fate, compared to the rest of her doomed companions. Who knew a cheeseburger could be an actual life saver? 

But why was Slowik so hell bent on killing the people he selected? Tyler's attempts of being a food expert definitely seemed to rub him up the wrong way but then there were three business men Bryce (Rob Yang), Sore (Arturo Castro), and Dave (Mark St Cyr) whose boss that Slowik made one hell of an example as well as an older couple Richard (Reed Birney) and Anne (Judith Light) who couldn't tell the difference between a cod and a halibut, despite being one of his more frequent of customers.

Of course, let's not forget the Movie Star (John Leguizamo) and his unfortunate assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero) and of course, food critic Lillian (Janet McTeer) and her assistant, Ted (Paul Adelstein). Not to mention the relationship with his mother, Linda (Rebecca Koon) and the effect he had on his own staff, particularly the likes of Jeremy (Adam Aalderks) and Katherine (Christina Brucato) in some genuinely shocking and disturbing scenes.

As an antagonist, Slowik was a compelling character to watch. A man whose passion for the thing he loved more than anything had been somewhat drained from him while Margot proved to be the ultimate foil for him. As for the final course, I would highly not recommend it but it certainly made for an explosive ending to this sumptuous experience.

- Margot had previously been hired by Richard for a daughter experience with Anne confronting her in a rather subdued manner on the issue.
- I like to take food pics as much as the next person, but even I found Tyler doing it to be extremely annoying. Still though the fall from grace he experienced was rather extreme.
- Twelve dining guests, twelve apostles and for eleven of them, it really was the last supper. Very fitting that.
- Chronology: Set in a post COVID world, given some of the dialogue here.

The Menu turned out to be one hell of a chaotic feast. I knew from the trailer, it was going to offer something a bit different and it definitely did that in spades. Absolutely brilliant performances, a very sophisticated script and tense directing definitely left me more than satisfied. Saying that, I'm no rush to have any S'mores though.

Rating: 9 out of 10

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