The Menu (2022, dir. Mark Mylod, US) by Kymm Zuckert
“You have to try the mouthfeel of the mignonette.”
“Please don’t say mouthfeel.”
This film was another situation where I saw the trailer and thought, Ralph Fiennes? Anya Taylor-Joy? High end restaurant? Tasting menu? Did they make this film for me?
Yes, yes they did. So much so that when they said that the meal in question was $1250, I was like, that’s a little steep, but not unreasonable. I like to think that I’m not as much of a jackass as the patrons in the movie are, but I’d love to have that meal! Up to a point…
Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) are waiting on a dock for a boat to take them to an island. On this island is a restaurant, the staff housing, the animals and produce that provides the food for the restaurant, and nothing else. This is the Hawthorn Restaurant on Hawthorn Island, where Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) will serve twelve diners a multi-course tasting menu that tells a story, the theme only evident at the meal’s conclusion.
Tyler is an obsessed foodie who worships Chef Julian, Margot, his date who finds she is a last minute substitution for his original date when Elsa, the matre d’ (a fantastic Hong Chau), calls her by the wrong name, is not, and finds this food and chef obsession to be kind of odd.
The other diners include three tech bros, an elderly couple (Reed Birney and Judith Light), the food writer who put Julian on the map (Janet McTeer), a has-been comedy movie star (John Leguizamo), and Julian’s drunk mother. And they are all at this meal on this day for a reason. Except Margot.
The Menu is a very sharp, biting satire on foodie culture, while also being a strong suspense film where you aren’t quite certain in what direction this menu is going, but you are pretty sure it isn’t going to end particularly well for anyone but those of us watching it from the relative safety of our theatre seats.
The performances are excellent all around, I mean, I’d see Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy in anything (I mean, almost anything, I didn’t see Amsterdam, one has to have some standards), but they acquit themselves nicely and have several great scenes together. Nicholas Hoult, too, is just terrific, as one of those famous “nice guys” who really aren’t that nice. I think my favourite of the diners, besides the lead couple, was Judith Light, who doesn’t have a huge role, but performs so subtly and precisely as this wealthy older woman without joy, it’s like watching someone paint a miniature, or perform surgery.
All in all, The Menu is a real treat, served with a perfect, unbroken sauce.
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog