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Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Searchlight | Tagged: movies, Review, searchlight, The Menu
The Menu Review: Refined As A Pinch Of Salt, Subtle As A Ghost Pepper
The Menu is simultaneously as understated as a pinch of salt and as subtle as a ghost pepper. This is a black comedy wearing the guise of a horror movie or a thriller, and it is better when it embraces the comedy elements.
Director: Mark Mylod
Summary: 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.
The Menu Says Do Not Serve The Rich, So They Can't Eat
The Menu will likely not be the movie that people expect when they see it in theaters. The film that is primarily being presented by the marketing is leaning heavily into the film's thriller and horror aspects. While those elements are present in this movie, at its core this is a black comedy that takes the idea of eating the rich to a logical conclusion. The trailer has shown some of the more comedic elements of the film, but it's a shame that Searchlight didn't seem to realize exactly what kind of film they had when they were given The Menu and told to try and find an audience for it. However, because it is a black comedy, it's not as gory, terrifying, or thrilling as people would expect it to be, somehow making this film feel more understated than it actually is.
It's also a film with plenty of say and doesn't exactly pull its punches while saying it. When it comes to targets, this film has one firmly planted on a couple of different people that are all right there for all of us to see. It's a very "us against them," or in the case of this film, it's a "working class versus the rich" type of battle. Our chef has a theme to his menu, and this film ensures that we understand exactly what it is trying to say. It's about as subtle as a ghost pepper or a 2×4 to the face. There is a moment in the end when the film reaches its resolution, when it all becomes clear, and we know what is being said. It's nothing nice about the 1% and how you can lose yourself as an artist in the search for monetary gain.
The Starving Artist Or The Starving Chef?
The Menu wants to draw a direct correlation between how catering to people and trying to make a profit off of what you love can really kill any joy you might have gotten from it. The saying, "do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life," has always been a fallacy brought forth by capitalism, but The Menu wants you to know that it's true no matter what you do or what aspect of life you might walk. Is it the fault of the patrons for corrupting something in their desire for something that can be considered exclusive? Is it the fault of capitalism for leaning into this aspect of food and gatekeeping? The film wants you to think about these questions while also cutting off limbs and subtly insulting people who say the word "mouth feel" without a hint of irony.
The film is walking a strange line, and much like a waiter trying to carefully balance too many trays, sometimes gravity gets in the way, and things fall apart. The schizophrenic nature of the film when it tries to be a thriller or a horror film clash with the rest of the black comedy and makes everything feel uneven. The messaging isn't subtle, and the film does beat you over the head with what it is trying to say more than once instead of trying to let all everything speak for itself. Director Mark Mylod has been mostly playing in the television sandbox, and the balancing act of this massive cast, combined with how insane this production is, means that everything does fall apart at times.
However, the cast does a very good job of keeping this all together the best it can. The only people with any real depth are Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) though that is very much by design. Everyone else is supposed to be an arc representation of different parts of the 1% and how they ruin things. We aren't meant to sympathize with any of them, and we aren't told to really remember any of them.
That being said, intentionally paper-thin characters are still paper thin, and it means that the only times there is any tension is when Margot is in danger. Taylor-Joy remains one of the best of her generation and seeing her as someone who looks like they should belong but doesn't it quite lovely. Fiennes captures that electricity where you can understand why his restaurant staff appears to have a cultlike admiration of him. Finally, it's so good to see Hong Chau in a role again after that unfortunate crap with Downsizing and her scene-stealing moments in Watchmen.
The Menu is a black comedy masquerading as a horror and thriller that is better when it embraces how dark and funny everything about it really is. The delicate balancing act it is doing doesn't always work, and there are moments when it falls apart, but it is a fun little watch that isn't going to make a massive splash one way or another. Once it makes its way to streaming services, people will be talking about the final scenes and how they weirdly want to go out for lunch for a very specific item. I did when my screening ended, and the experience was better for it.
The Menu
7/10
The Menu is simultaneously as understated as a pinch of salt and as subtle as a ghost pepper. This is a black comedy wearing the guise of a horror movie or a thriller, and it is better when it embraces the comedy elements.
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