The Menu [Mark Mylod; Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Fiennes]

pixelburp

Mylod is a first-time film director but would/might be known to some as a director of Succession (a TV series I admittedly haven't watched).

This looks like a nifty riff on The Most Dangerous Game, with a wry smile aimed towards the facade of Haute Cuisine;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_uTkUGcHv4

Slydice

I wonder if they are going for a 'Here's how everything in a kitchen can kill you' type storyline

JP Liz V1

You are what you eat 😁

2smiggy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9764362/

Strange but very enjoyable film about a mixture of 'upper class' people going to the restaurant of a famous/eccentric chef on a small island. Obliviously things may not go as expected or else it would be a very boring film !! It also has an excellent cast including Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy. 8.5/10 for me

Loved the trailer and I love Ray Fiennes in this kind of role. Absolutely loved him in In Bruges.

I saw some bad reviews so kind of forgot about it. But your review gives me hope!

speedboatchase

This is on Disney+ now.

flasher0030

I was really looking forward to this. But felt short-changed by the end. It showed promise as to which way the film was going to end. But it got silly and the plot didn't really point towards any particular purpose. I have read a few articles on the meaning of the ending of the movie to see if I missed anything. But nothing really. I wouldn't recommend it.

gmisk

Now on Disney plus.

Enjoyed it a fair bit but have to agree on the ending....

Spoiler Warning

It felt very rushed....but it was kind of funny....s'mores are quite nice....a pretentious snob til the very end.

The guests didn't put up much of a fight let's be honest, but they weren't all horrendous....the failing movie star assistant (her crime not being in debt and going to a posh school) the older lady, turning a blind eye (possibly) to her hubbie being into hookers and not remembering the menu... seriously?

The cheese burger was by far the tastiest food produced....to go was probably the best option...and she got a gift bag...no napkins though lol

sherrupyew

I saw this in the cinema and enjoyed it. I was expecting an absurd dark comedy/horror, and that's pretty much what I got. It was lean enough and didn't overstay its welcome. A solid 3/5.

I think its satirical elements could have been tighter and I can't say I felt anything for the characters at all. But I was never bored and it was well executed.

The fact that it was made by one of the directors of Succession makes sense. Same "awful rich people" vibes. This was sillier, but similarly entertaining in a biting way.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067089#Comment_120067089

Yeah, would echo much of this. Good fun with great pacing, so its faults don’t give you too much time to mull on them.

Sad Professor

Merged

artvanderlay

Very enjoyable film with some very funny lines. Ralph Fiennes was great in it, although Nicholas Hoult was the standout for me. If you want a good mystery set on an island watch this instead of Glass Onion, which was garbage!

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120113855#Comment_120113855

I'd say they're both different enough types of films that a comparison between The Menu and Glass Onion isn't really justified tbh. Glass Onion is a comedy/mystery, whereas The Menu is more horror/black-comedy.

The Menu is far less about the 'how' and more about the 'why', and it's in that regard where it kinda falls apart for me.

Spoiler Warning

I understand Slowik's reasons for wanting to kill everyone etc, but it's the willingness of all the other chefs and staff to go along with it which is never truly justified, so it ends up being more "horror for the sake of making an overall point" than a mystery where people's reasons and motives are to be deduced and finally revealed.

I really liked the film overall, and Taylor-Joy, Hoult, Fiennes and Chau were all terrific in particular.

De Bhál

watched this over the weekend. Moves along a a quick pace. Enjoyable way to waste a couple of hours

buried

Lovely flow to this film and some absolutely great satirical laughs at the current world of vapid pretentiousness. Hoult was brilliant, played the role of the modern day gom to perfection.

artvanderlay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114410#Comment_120114410

I'm not really comparing them, I just hated Glass Onion so much that I look for any excuse to kick it :) Very different films, although they are both thrillers set on an island run by a meglomaniac!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114410#Comment_120114410

The idea is that the people who work in some of these top places - Noma for example which is the place this restaurant would be loosely based on - are like food zealouts who will do anything for their work, or reverence for their head chef. This is the "why"!

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118587#Comment_120118587

I get that, but the devotion they have in that regard (which includes security staff, not just line cooks, unless those security staff are also line cooks working as security for the event) just extends too far past that zealotry and idolatry that it's borderline religious fanaticism in a way that's just never really explored enough.

But that's my point with regards the difference between this and Glass Onion; in Glass Onion, everyone's motives need to be deduced, investigated and explored because it's part of the mystery. Whereas in The Menu, it's just not as important as the overall theme and ideas the movie is trying to explore.

faceman

Really enjoyed this. Not sure it would have been as good without the talent of Fiennes, Taylor-Joy and Hoult.

Mike from Red Letter Media was spot on when he said the movie is like....

Spoiler Warning

...an adult version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the cheeseburger is the everlasting gobstopper

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119028#Comment_120119028

The modern day 'cult of personality' is basically a fanatical religion though, look at instagram, celebrity worship etc.. That's what this film so brilliantly pulls the total p!ss out of. Hoult's character is the most fanatical out of all of them, and he doesn't even work there.

Potatoeman

I enjoyed it, well acted, directed and good dialogue but don’t look too deep into the story as it’s not fleshed out that way. There is no moral or message to the story which seems to be why some people don’t like it.

Edit: It takes a swipe at reviewers and food snobs, which would also explain some low reviews.

faceman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120125433#Comment_120125433

There is definitely a message in the story, and a moral too.

Potatoeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120125513#Comment_120125513

There is a vague message about classism but any questions raised themselves raise more questions within the story.

This is very much a "high-concept" film primarily concerned with class and exploitative systems.

It works just about although it does fall apart a bit like a mediocre pudding by the time of the dessert course.

retalivity

I ended up watching this over 2 nights, got distracted after about 45mins and had to do something else. I was hooked into it at that point, and was looking forward to the rest, but the 2nd half was just meh...as others have said, nothing further was explored and was all a bit silly.

Why was the coastguard on their side? Or was it some guy the chef had sitting waiting to listen to the radio in his room for ever, just in case?

Allowing the men to run away for 10 mins to get the woman around a table to talk.

The cheeseburger cop-out?

The owner with wings on a crane?

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120136983#Comment_120136983

Ya. I was the same. I thought it was a really interesting setup, and was intrigued as to what was going to happen. But then it went to nothing. There was very little substance to the overall context - no interesting point at the end of it.

Some movies here get an easy ride. Movies like the Glass Onion and Banshee of Inisherin are analysed to death - probing away trying to find every fault possible. And a film like The Menu gets a free pass on the basis that it has some kind of arty undertone, but which disguises the fact that by the end of it the interesting set-up in the first half ends up with nothing actually happening in the second half.