The Menu Film Review: A Successful Horror Comedy Starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Janet McTee
Director: Mark Mylod
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Friday 18th November one of the most unmissable black comedies of the year The Menu will arrive in cinemas with Searchlight Pictures; directed by Mark Mylod from an original screenplay curated by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu is a delightful and at the same time corrosive feature film, which miraculously manages to combine tones and languages typical of surreal comedy with an exquisitely horrifying approach, to staging a biting satire on the classism of contemporary art and its nonsense. Between one course and another of a refined and unexpected gourmet menu.
Something is frustrating about Disney’s handling of 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox) and Searchlight Pictures (formerly Fox Searchlight), with several titles being hijacked for one reason or another streaming. This is especially in the horror field, as anyone who wanted to experience works such as the remake of Hellraiser on the big screen knows, which in the United States has become a Hulu Original and in Europe has yet to be clarified. Among the lucky exceptions to the rule, which arrives at the cinema after attending festivals such as those in Toronto, Zurich and Rome, there is the film we are talking about in this review of The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod and with a cast of exception which includes Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult.
The Menu Review: The Story
The story takes place on the private island of the famous chef Slowik, who is known for his unusual and unique dishes: every time he invites someone to a tasting, the menu changes completely, to make the experience unique for each guest. His is a real devotion to the culinary art, a devotion shared by his staff who adhere to various strict rules (guests are not allowed to photograph food, for example, and certain parts of the area are strictly off-limits). An eccentric but not particularly worrying system, say those who go to the island for dinner on duty. But gradually it becomes clear that Slowik has something more perverse and extreme in mind than usual…
Twelve individuals are invited to an exclusive dinner on the remote island of Hawthorn Island, full of anticipation for the menu of the renowned and eccentric chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), now famous in the culinary world for his sought-after, daring and unique in their kind. Among the twelve guests at the restaurant on the island are also the young couple formed by Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), eager to embark on what will in effect be a journey through the gourmet wonders of the island. With some macabre surprises in between.
Thus begins The Menu, a new feature film directed by Mark Mylod, a director who in recent years has found much of his success by participating behind the camera in TV series such as Game of Thrones and Succession. Using an original script written to perfection by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, the filmmaker packs a culinary course destined for the big screen ready to be studied and praised by audiences and critics for its admirable narrative and thematic layering.
The Menu Review and Analysis
The central figure of the film is a great Ralph Fiennes, who dusts off his solid and proven credentials as a villain in the role of Slowik, while his main opponent, on a narrative and recitative level, is Anya Taylor-Joy, accompanied by Nicholas Hoult and the only presence properly “human” in a deliberately caricatured and grotesque context. Also present, among others, John Leguizamo in the role of a vein movie star, Janet McTeer in that of a food critic, and an amazing Hong Chau (character actor par excellence in 2022, having also starred for Darren Aronofsky in The Whale and Kelly Reichardt in Showing Up) in the part of Elsa, deputy to the chef and main spokesperson for the bizarre and at times lethal philosophy of the odd culinary star.
The Menu marks the return to cinema of director Mark Mylod after eleven years of absence. Of British origin (his first feature film, 20 years ago, was Ali G’s film with Sacha Baron Cohen), the filmmaker is best known for his television works, including Entourage, Shameless, Game of Thrones, and, recently, Succession, of which he has signed the largest number of episodes in the first three seasons. And it is in similar territory that he moves here, not only for the productive participation of Adam McKay but also and above all for the ferocious social criticism expressed in the form of a very black comedy, which makes its expression eat the rich with brio and creativity. From the first scene, the lightly charged and highly cruel spirit of the operation is evident, which stages individuals with various shades of repulsive personalities who will end up clashing during the evening between ferocious invectives and perfectly calibrated humiliations.
Not necessarily original but still amusing and entertaining, the film is structured as a dinner/tasting, with the various dishes – named and described on the screen – that mark the narrative progression and the escalation of horrors by Slowik and shareholders. A coherent and at the same time mocking choice made to test the viewer because even if the individual dishes are not particularly heavy, the cumulative effect can be that of a big binge not compatible with all cinephile palates. But for those willing to go all the way there is a surprising and very rewarding aftertaste, a sublime blend of lofty aspirations and execution that in some places pretends to aim lower. Bon appétit!
A culinary chain that however hides a secret and a much more sinister and disturbing intent than what appears on the surface; Margot, interpreted by the talented Taylor-Joy, is the first to notice the morally ambiguous and dangerous staging of the chef, a true narrative balance that accompanies the viewer up to the surprising final resolution. Far from wanting to reveal fundamental details of the plot of Mylod’s beautiful horror comedy, this one works great when it turns into an original reflection on the state of the art in all its forms in contemporary society, trapped as it is between intellectual exercises devoid of true passion. and consumeristic desire to cannibalize every artistic impulse by transforming it into repugnant conformism.
This is why the satire that Mark Mylod enacts is particularly clever; starting from what, for better or for worse, is the art form that every human being experiences and transforms in close contact with their primary needs, the director offers a profound and adequate reflection on the extent of food to the current cinematographic year. has become the subject of social classes. In life, as in any society that has been structured since the dawn of time, some give and some take, a fatal difference that the menu created by Chef Slowik has the ambition to stop once and for all.
And so in the end The Menu by the British director manages to combine in a brilliant and unprecedented way stinging social satire with culinary horror, preparing a real cinematic dish capable of surprising the most shrewd viewer and keeping him practically glued to the armchair in the room, overcoming so widely the expectations for a feature film with a particularly ambitious and audacious concept. After all, as Chef Slowik says, it’s hard to joke about food. Mylod, unexpectedly, does it great with a very delicious macabre touch.
The Menu Review: The Last Words
Mark Mylod’s The Menu combines biting satire with culinary horror by preparing a perfectly laid out feature that far exceeds expectations. A very black comedy where you laugh, jump from your chair and reflect on the state of contemporary art in the most unexpected way possible. A triumph In The Menu, social satire from a horror perspective is not necessarily original, but performed with panache and coherence, thanks to an intriguing structure and a cast in a state of grace, starting with the eccentric chef played by Ralph Fiennes.
