The Menu Review

The Menu is the second meal theme film to be released this year in the UK. The first was the Welsh film The Feast. Both films have their own take on the class divide.

Hawthorne is an exclusive restaurant on an island. The chef is the celebrated Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his meals always have a theme that becomes clear at the end of the night. One night, the guests at Hawthorne have a darker than excepted experience.

The Menu was a film that didn’t hide its themes. It was a stinging critique of the wealthy and artistic pretentiousness. It was a film filled with unlikeable characters and under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to spend time with them. The Menu avoided this because of one major character and the jet-black humour.

The film centred around Margo, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. She acted as the audience surrogate since she was an outsider to this elite world and she said what the audience would be thinking. She cut through the pretentious bullshit spouted by Slowik and her date, Jake (Nicholas Hoult). Margo’s tastes were simpler. This was shown when the guests were given their first course and she said she preferred the oyster by itself. Margo was stinging when Slowik presented his breadless platter and stated that he was insulting the patrons with his class statement.

Margo’s presence at the restaurant did throw a spanner into Slowik’s plan. Margo was a late replacement as Jake’s dining partner and Slowik had planned everything according to his guest list. He was a perfectionist, and her dismissal of the food frustrated him. Slowik deduced that Margo was from humbler stock compared to the rest of the guests and he asked where she stood, with the shit shovelers or the shit eaters?

Slowik was a combination of a cult leader and Jigsaw from the Saw series. Slowik chefs and staff were devoted to him and willing to do anything for him. The Jigsaw comparisons were due to Slowik’s targeting his victims for the crimes they had committed. He even taunted them with his specially printed tortillas. Some of the dark comedy came from Slowik’s motivations to murder some of the guests were a bit extreme.

Fiennes is an actor who has a commanding presence. He had a quiet authority during the film and it made him more threatening. Fiennes’ Slowik didn’t scream and shout, he wasn’t Gordon Ramsay, he was more like Heston Blumenthal since both chefs were more interested in revolutionary methods and have a much calmer demeanour.

Professional kitchens have a reputation for being military-like. There’s a strict hierarchy and cooks often shout in unison when responding to their commander i.e. the head chef. The Menu takes this to its extreme since the staff was willing to do anything for Slowik and they lived in barrack-like conditions.

The Menu was a film filled with acting talent. It featured the likes of John Leguizamo, and Janet McTeer. Besides from Taylor-Joy and Fiennes, the most notable cast moments were Hong Chau and Nicholas Hoult. Chau played the restaurant’s maître d’. On the surface she was professional and a bit stern, yet when her mask slipped, she was really sinister. A highlight was when she whispered to one of the diners complaining they weren’t getting any bread.

Hoult played the vilest character in the film. Jake started out as an over-enthusiastic fanboy who would blindly defend Slowik and wanted to earn the chef’s approval. But as the film progressed Jake was clearly an egotist who knew more than he let on. When there was death and mutilation, all the diners were shocked and showed some empathy, but Jake kept eating. The more that was revealed about Jake the more detestable he became.

The Menu was directed by Mark Mylod, best known for his work on Succession. He used that experience on the show to make The Menu since he made the film like it was a prestigious drama. It was a film set in a refined setting, about people who think they’re cultured but it turns out to be an exploitative story.

The Menu was a solid dark comedic thriller with a horror twist. It was a fun takedown of the wealthy, artistic pretentious, and the people who think they are cultured for enjoying pretentiousness.