A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu with some shocking surprises.
A scathing satire of humanity’s wealthiest, most self-absorbed and detached from reality specimen, Mark Mylod’s “The Menu” may be one of the most unexpected features of 2022. It arrives with little fanfare at a time when blockbusters and horror dominate the theaters. The gore-fest “Terrifier 2,” for example, whose budget is listed as $250K on IMDB, has so far made over $10M at the box office — more than indie award darlings and A-list starrers “Tar,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” or “Armageddon Time.” The marketing campaign for “The Menu” keeps its most compelling elements under wraps, which would arguably draw in larger crowds. You could never tell from the film’s vague poster what it’s actually about, nor could you ever predict its twists or expect the edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that it is.
Things start simmering early on, with couple Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) joining a crowd of entrepreneurs, public figures, and food critics on a boat trip to a remote island, where Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) awaits with a lavish, once-in-a-lifetime, multiple-course meal. Among the degustators are: a fading movie star (John Leguizamo) and his girlfriend (Aimee Carrero), a couple (Reed Birney and Judith Light) who’s dined there 11 times, a trio of douchebag CEOs (Mark St. Cyr, Arturo Castro, and Rob Yang), and a duet of food critics (Janet McTeer and Paul Adelstein.) Upon arrival, they’re greeted by the passively malevolent Elsa (Hong Chau), who guides them through the island’s ecosystem before showing them to their tables.
Margot’s initial cynicism towards all this extravagance morphs into skepticism — and eventually suspicion and fear — once Chef Slowik begins to announce the dishes, his obedient staff hastily creating culinary magic behind him. As the dishes become increasingly grotesque, the realization that this is way more than just an exclusive meal dawns on the guests — all except Tyler, whose awe of Slowik turns over into crazed obsession. The film, which begins as a sharp send-up of the elite, very much in the vein of Mylod’s hit series “Succession,” ends up as a sharp send-up of the elite, very much in the vein of “Ready or Not.”
Which is kind of a shame. The filmmaker and his two screenwriters — Seth Reiss and Will Tracy — nudge the film a little too far into slasher territory in its second half. Thankfully, even when they do so, they do it with tongues planted firmly in cheek. The world of couture cuisine, just like fashion, is low-hanging fruit, ripe for satire, yet the team is masterful at making the old seem new with non-stop clever one-liners and unexpected twists and turns. To say nothing of eliciting terrific performances from the cast — which, granted, couldn’t have been that difficult given the cast’s pedigree. Fiennes exudes menace and sorrow as the reclusive, resentful chef. Hoult is hilarious and eventually tragic as the eager-to-fit-in Tyler. Chau and Leguizamo both deserve significant shout-outs for their portrayals. But it’s Taylor-Joy, whose Margot has secrets of her own, that ends up being the film’s heart.
Mylod dissects power — the power exuded in a work environment by superiors, the power in a relationship, the power of food and art, and the power of stupidity when backed by bottomless wealth. These oblivious wannabe connoisseurs pretend to have the most refined palettes: before the meal, Tyler urges Margot not to smoke so that her palette will remain intact; in one of the film’s sharpest sequences, a bread dish is served without bread, as it’s historically been consumed by peasants for sustenance, and there are no peasants here, of course. Instead, they fork at the sauces.
Call it a revenge tale, if you will. To avoid giving out any more spoilers, let’s say someone was wronged, folks chase each other, and shit goes up in flames. Mylod and his crew have concocted an out-of-the-blue, deeply sarcastic Grand Guignol tale of greed and salvation. Not all of it’s up to par, yet it soars miles above the rest when it takes flight. Go ahead, and grab the menu; just don’t look at the prices.
In Theaters Friday, November 18th
