After a run of less than stellar movies, I finally watched one that I ... liked? I've been keeping my eye out for The Menu to arrive on a streaming platform that I have and it finally popped up. What a stacked cast: Ralph Fiennes, Anna Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, Judith Light (who really didn't get that much to do but still).
The premise is this: twelve guests arrive on-island for a specialty dinner at an ultra-snooty restaurant - $1,250/per person. The boat drops them off and then leaves, effectively stranding them, a fact that Margot (AT-J) notices a little uncomfortably. She is there as the guest of Tyler (Hoult), a pretentious, self-proclaimed foodie influencer, despite the fact that he doesn't cook himself. We've also got a ruthless restaurant critic (McTeer), a washed-up movie star (Leguizamo) and his assistant, a grouchy couple and three investment banking bros. Everyone is rich, entitled and kind of an asshole, in various ways.
Fiennes is the chef and his small army of staff follow him worshipfully. Service is both impeccable and inflexible; the food is abstract and ostentatious. Chef introduces each course with a little monologue and as the courses go on, his speeches get stranger. His mother is over there in the corner, drinking herself into oblivion. Chef has been disillusioned and driven quite mad by catering to the thoughtless, careless rich and, well, as it turns out, everyone on the island tonight is going to die, guests and staff alike. The dinner to end all dinners.
Both Anna Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes are great, of course. The Menu isn't straight-up horror but seems a little uncategorizable - weirder than your typical thriller, medium bloody, not funny enough to be a dark comedy. If you like odd little movies - if you like to eat the rich - take a taste for yourself.
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