One of the critically acclaimed movies from 2022 was THE MENU. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, this horror-comedy will not only shock but also entertain. Another plus side is that you get to see some interesting dishes but as the movie progresses, you will not find them delicious, but just a little dangerous.
1) The ongoing mystery regarding Anya Taylor-Joy’s character. Just who is she? And why is an older gentleman avoiding her. Clearly, he knows her, right?
2) Before every dish is served, a card appears in the style of a menu, stating just exactly which dish is being served. The Menu, truly works as a menu. It even gives detailed descriptions of dishes. Towards the climax, the dishes are described, but the dark humor is evident in them.
3) We’ve seen some hotheaded chefs on reality TV but no one comes close to Ralph Fiennes’ Chef Slowik. He has carefully selected each of his guests because of something they have done in their past. The biggest betrayal you can give is to yourself, and that happens either when you attain success through devious methods or by giving up your dreams and conforming to what is expected out of you.
Each of the guests have sinned in this manner, except Anya’s character. Turns out, she wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place!
4) Laser printing is no longer used to create vivid pictures. It is also used on food, tortillas in this case. One of the courses is tortillas which is printed with sins each of the guests has been trying to hide.
5) Of all the guests, it is Nicholas Hoult’s character, Tyler, who is the most unperturbed by the events that take place. He is the one who has brought Margot, Anya’s character, although he hadn’t intended to. Tyler is over-enthused to be there and keeps trying to impress the Chef at all times. His cavaler attitude baffles Margot.
6) The staff at the restaurant aren’t merely ornamental. They all have interesting parts to play, although three of them actually have stories that come into play during the movie. One of them is Jeremy who is brought forward by Chef Slowik. Before introducing the next dish, he makes Jeremy come forward and insults him for being a people-pleaser and refusing to take a look at his own life.
In fact, as the Chef claims, Jeremy has made a mess of his life by trying to please everyone around him. Jeremy is then made to kill himself, prompting panic around everyone. His death is what suddenly changes the mood of the movie. It is no longer about dishes but the fact that nobody is going to make it alive after all the courses are served.
Of course, one person does survive at the end.
7) The hunt scene is put into motion by Chef Slowik after he brings forth another employee, a woman called Katherine who claims that the Chef sexually harassed her and didn’t promote her for a long time because of her gender. She is instructed by the Chef to humiliate him which she does by stabbing him in the thigh. The guests are shocked but when the Chef and Katherine make up, they are even more mystified.
It is then that the Chef announces that all the male guests will be hunted. They all try to hide and run, but are eventually found and made to come back.
8) Margot is revealed to be an escort named Erin. It is also revealed that the older man who was avoiding her, had once hired her and pleasured himself while she was made to watch. In spite of her career, she has been honest and the one who has sinned the least in the Chef’s eyes.
The Chef also feels sorry for her considering she had no idea her date Tyler had not told her that everyone in this outing was doomed to die.
9) Tyler is revealed to be a weird fan of Chef Slowik, and trying his earnest to impress him. Towards the end the Chef allows Tyler to cook for him but of course, Tyler isn’t a great cook. He is humiliated and then told to kill himself. Tyler does exactly that.
10) Margot/Erin manages to find out that Chef Slowik was happiest when he was making cheeseburgers as a young man before he grew hard and cynical trying to be a fancy chef.
And so, in the climax, Margot uses her smarts to get the chef cook a cheeseburger for her. This is the first time the Chef is seen enjoying his cooking. He serves it to Margot who wants to pack up the rest and take it to go.
The Chef agrees. She was after all, the only guest who had not lied to herself or anyone else. She was an escort and hadn’t conned anyone.
Besides, the Chef was grateful to her for giving him that one moment in his life when he was happy to cook something without pretentions.
Margot takes her bag and leave, unable to save anyone else. She sits in a boat and watches the restaurant go up in flames while wiping her mouth with the menu.
THE MENU is truly a one of a kind movie that had some incredible, thought-provoking movies. The dark humor is just in the right doses to keep the pace going.
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