BY HARRIET HUGHES
Released in 2022, The Menu is director Mark Mylod’s latest horror/psychological thriller. He’s known for Game of Thrones, Succession and also, surprisingly, Shameless. The movie stars Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort from Harry Potter) as a deeply complex chef, traumatised by the criticism and hardships he’s had to face in his career, Anya Taylor Joy (from The Queen’s Gambit) who plays a high-class escort, and, who is by far my favourite character, Nicholas Hoult (Tony from Skins?!) who plays an insufferable food critic.
The IMDB summary of the movie is very vague – ‘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.’ – but this is exactly how it should be. If you have not watched the movie yet and are planning to, I would advise going into it completely blind for the best viewing experience. For those who have seen it though, let’s get into the nitty-gritty.
It’s important not to take the movie too seriously. Let’s be clear, it’s obviously satirical, and takes the phrase, ‘eat the rich’ to a whole other level. Brian Tellerico put it best when he described the characters as, ‘engaging in a wickedly satirical pas de deux about the shallow consumer culture that often comes from the cultural elite and how there are no winners when creative pursuits like cuisine become over-commodified.’ This chef, however, definitely manages to do something unique.
The movie is definitely not making a ground-breaking statement about the world, but it’s not trying to – it’s the absurdity of the situation is what makes it so entertaining, and the amount of humour is balanced perfectly with the gore and violence to make something really really enjoyable.
There’s a perfect amount of heart-warming moments in the movie too, and for some reason I was moved to tears when the chef smiled at Margot complimenting his cheeseburger.
The movie is obviously well done. The acting, the dialogue, the score (done by Colin Stetson), the ideas and the cinematography is outstanding. The real highlight, however, were the visuals; they were stunning and all of the shots of the amazing meals made me very, very hungry, so definitely watch it with some snacks. The fact that it was a single location drama did not take away from the movie at all, as it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
In the end, it might sound cliché, but this movie really did have it all. It made me laugh, cry, and jump in both fear and excitement.
Accompanied best with a simple cheeseburger (with American cheese) 😉