The Menu (2022)
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The Menu Movie Review
The Menu is a 2022 dark comedy horror film directed by Mark Mylod and starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes. It is a simplistic, but undeniably entertaining genre treat.
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“I told you, you weren’t leaving“
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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 black comedy that morphs into full-on horror toward the end, The Menu is all about the excess of the wealthy, in particular focusing on ridiculous modern trends, class differences and critics’ snobbishness.
That last theme was extensively focused on through a couple of memorable food observations by the attendees that not only made no sense, but were absolutely hilarious in their vagueness and pretentiousness. The film is a metaphor on movie critics and audiences (both popcorn entertainment and snobbish cinephiles are ridiculed here) and that metaphor is difficult to miss as it’s quite obvious.
This movie is all about Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes, both delivering tremendous work. Fiennes has always been amazing in villainous roles and in my mind he should be mostly cast in such roles as he is perfect to play calculated, mentally unstable men, such as the chef in this story. His backstory is memorable and the actor chewed his scenery like crazy, delivering an over-the-top performance that really worked.
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Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance is, on the other hand, lies on the subtler side of things. She is this outsider person on this lavish dinner party where she is the only sane, regular girl who cuts through everybody’s bullshit gloriously. The bulk of the film is essentially seeing her befuddled expressions at everyone else, and she delivered in spades, especially in her emotive eyes.
The dynamic between the two characters was fascinating and the final sequence between the two was silly, but it did work thematically and dramatically speaking. The problem with the film is that the other players are largely underutilized and their characters underwritten. Hong Chau is terrific as the icy henchman, but totally left unexplained is her and others’ devotion to this chef. Why would they go to such extreme lengths to serve him remained a mystery.
Janet McTeer is very funny as this pretentious food critic and John Leguizamo also has his memorable moments as the only movie star in the group. But Judith Light was ridiculously underused and all the other characters got very little to do as well. Still, The Menu functioned well as this trapped on an island story that was seemingly familiar and predictable in its premise, but ultimately turned out to be clever and original in its cultish overtones. It’s well shot, directed and edited too with the food tasting scenes being delightfully outlandish. The horror moments worked, but it is the humor that elevated the movie to greater heights as it made me laugh multiple times due to its very funny, sophisticated dialogue.
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The Menu underused most of its actors as they were saddled with playing largely underwritten characters, but its two stars elevated the movie to greater heights. Anya Taylor-Joy is magnificent in one of her most memorable turns yet while Ralph Fiennes was delightfully villainous as the main chef. The movie is obvious in its themes and somewhat baffling in its ending, but the dialogue is so strong and humorous that the film was at its best in the black comedy department, even more so than as a horror.
My Rating – 4
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