The Menu

Around the years 2021 and 2022, there were quite a few projects that felt like what some would call ‘’eat the rich’’ experiences, being films or tv shows that focused on an upper-class group of socialites being put through often karmic hell to the apparent delight of the filmmakers. While there were a lot of these throughout this period with inconsistent quality, the ones that got the most mainstream attention were the 2022 Oscar-nominated film, Triangle of Sadness, the sequel to the 2019 popular murder mystery, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the critically acclaimed darkly comedic HBO series, The White Lotus, and the 2022 Searchlight film, The Menu, starring Anya-Taylor Joy and Ralph Fiennes. Each of these projects shared a similar theme and presentation that certainly added to the growing fad forming within the media space at the time, and showed the public’s perspective regarding those with extreme wealth and how they were craving to watch them be tortured (it’s a little concerning but not surprising, with films like Parasite and Joker also being massive hits whilst talking about similar topics). Out of these projects, The Menu was the least successful in terms of recognition, but it still did well with critics, proving that even amongst a crowd of familiars, it still was given the chance to declare its own level of 1% vitriol.

An illusive woman named Margot (played by Anya-Taylor Joy) has been asked out by the food-obsessed Tyler Ledford (played by Nicholas Hoult), who takes her to an exclusive restaurant on a private island owned by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes). Joined by other guests differing in age, but all being extremely wealthy, Margot feels out of place in this line-up, which becomes more apparent when Slowik’s meals come out extremely pretentious and overly ‘’symbolic’’ to the point of ridiculousness, with everyone having their own affluently appropriate way of reacting to the meals. While most of the guests start to get irritated with these bizarre servings and try to demand better options, it becomes clear very quickly that this isn’t a simple exclusive getaway meal, but rather an orchestrated plot by Slowik to corral those who have insulted or demeaned his work in the past and put them through a hellish night that will end in their deaths. With Margot being an odd-one-out that Slowik is desperately trying to pinpoint, palettes are cleansed through fire in this night, where the end results are bound to be bloody and will certainly be savoured by the one hungry for revenge.

As a movie, The Menu is a relatively straightforward picture that wears its commentary and messed-up tone on its sleeve and does feel a little tone deaf, but with solid performances, some legitimately clever callouts on the problems with nonconstructive criticism, and a personality that is thankfully a little sick, it still results in a decent watch.

On the surface, the film isn’t one that’s really hiding anything as the trailers pretty much give away everything of impact in the plot and doesn’t do a lot to shake things up much as it keeps going. One of the drawbacks to this trend is that they become so focused on delivering on themes and executing its targets in a way that is graphically humorous, that it feels like it takes attention away from the more relevant and important aspects of a film like its scripting, narrative, and characters. On paper, this plot has a lot of strong pieces not just from the premise, which coats a traditional slasher-esque scenario under the lens of a fancy culinary experience, but also in how it presents its message. The commentary handled by the screenwriters, Seth Reiss, and Will Tracy, is easily the most thought-out quality of this film, and how it talks about the pressures of creating art and the struggle that comes with having to cater to an audience that can never be truly satisfied, is very well handled.It’s a concept that can be universal and attributed to many different creative careers (whether it be a filmmaker, an artist, a musician, etc), but the fact that it’s being presented through food this time feels very fresh and fairly new, as it is an industry that starts with a creative spark and admirable passion, but can also very quickly descend into forceful monotony, especially when having to cater to people who are either overly obsessed and critique anything that doesn’t feature ‘’the finest of ingredients’’ or are too ambivalent and don’t care at all about the meal and only the superiority that comes with dining fancy.

The call outs are interesting and truthful, the various ways it showcases how people can misuse and even misunderstand food for their own gains is biting yet fair, and it comes to a nice conclusion where the most fulfilling ingredient for a solid meal isn’t decadent flavours or elaborate designs, but rather just honest love and care, creating a situation where a simple cheeseburger and fries is much more delicious than anything with a 5-star rating behind it. While this theme isn’t flashy or that subtle, it is entertaining and handed in a nice way, which is more than can be said for the rest of the movie. While the idea is fun, the film feels like it needed an extra rewrite in order to iron out its plot a little more, as it seems like it’s running on the fumes of its tone and themes rather than any strong narrative or character, which can be felt especially in the ending which feels a little underwhelming given the build-up. The director for this film, Mark Mylod, handles the picture well enough, balancing the light and dark tones of this idea okay, leading the actors in a quirky yet still believable way, and having a pace that is thankfully quite short and to the point, but it also feels a little standard and not the most engaging from a filmmaking standpoint, not shining as much as its premise could have allowed.

In a set up where most of the characters are expected to be bratty, uppity individuals, the acting does a solid enough job at providing most of these roles some sense of relatability and humanity, as unlike other outings that mock the 1%, these people aren’t as openly hateable as you’d expect. They clearly have their issues and aren’t all great people, but they aren’t portrayed as cartoonishly one-note monsters either, which means the slaughtering of them feels a little extreme and not as joyously entertaining given the circumstances. With that said, they are also fairly underwritten, as despite the large cast, barely any of them have any noticeable backstory or strong personality traits. This wouldn’t be an issue if most were getting killed off before stopping at a select few (like you’d see in any standard slasher film) but that isn’t really the case here, so being stuck with these bland roles for such a length of time isn’t that engaging. As previously stated, the acting is good and people like Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Reed Birney, Judith Light, Rob Yang, Arturo Castro, and Mark St. Cyr are doing the best they can with so little, but the remaining cast members have a bit more to work with and therefore stand out a bit more.

The true shining stars of this film are Anya-Taylor Joy and Ralph Fiennes as the leads, as both are wonderfully engaging and play these roles with just enough restrained frustration to feel slightly crazed, but never unnatural. Whether it’s Joy’s wonderfully natural yet equally graceful demeanor and expressive eyes, or Fiennes’ hidden bitterness and entertainingly cutting remarks, it provides a lot of swagger but also comedy to the picture, and they really help the film out in the long run. Nicholas Hoult plays his part with such conviction that you instantly want to strangle the guy for how much of a mindlessly pompous brown-noising suck-up he is, John Leguizamo and Janet McTeer, play small roles without much depth, but their strengths as performers help them stand apart from the rest of the cattle, and Hong Chau as the maître d’ Elsa is also pretty fun, containing that same level of restrained bitterness for her guests, but having the benefit of hiding behind a passive-aggressive smile the whole time which results in a few cryptic chuckles.

A key factor to know about this film is that it came from a lot of the people who were responsible for the hit show, Succession. Mark Mylod was a regular director on the show, both Adam McKay and Will Ferrell acted as producers on both projects, even Will Tracy acted as a writer for a few episodes, and you can feel the similarities between each project from how the characters interact, to how the dialogue is spoken and paced, even to the overall vibe. With this in mind, it paints a unique problem this movie has to deal with, that being that it pretty much becomes the very thing its mocking. The film is pretty high-end, with a sophisticated cast, fancy presentation given the moderate budget, and an overall polished look to its visuals and style, painting it as a relatively high-profile picture with gloss and glamour, which in turn clashes with the film’s stance on mocking the 1% and makes the film feel a little tone deaf to what its talking about.

On top of that, most of the production design by Ethan Tobman isn’t the most unique or eye-catching which becomes increasingly noticeable the longer the film continues, and little is presented that ups the ante, so it doesn’t stand out very much. The cinematography by Peter Deming is decent, but not really allowed to do anything that special due to the plot’s small scale, the location gets bland to look at after a while even though it isn’t poorly designed, and the music by Colin Stetson never has any moments where it creates its own identity or different from other darkly comedic stories with a ritzy edge.

The Menu as a film is a perfectly watchable and slightly entertaining experience but isn’t something that’s going to last in your memory for a long time. Considering this trend of attacking the rich was pretty popular in that moment in time, yet isn’t as frequently used anymore once people saw the hint of hypocrisy coming out of them (a little backwards to make a movie about mocking the rich when they are in fact made by rich people), but excluding that, the film does work with what it has and despite being a little simple minded, does at least have a thoughtfulness to it that is appreciated. Its usage of the cooking world and making it a template for its commentary results in some good scenes and effective showcases of the messaging, the actors are entertaining, and while it’s not the most hilarious thing ever, there are a few visuals and ideas that could result in a messed-up chuckle. Maybe a bit too pretentious for its own good, but worth at least one watch, a culinary experience that may be bitter, but is also adequately refined in small portions.