{Fantastic Fest 2022} The Menu

I was once invited to a Michelin starred restaurant in Chicago. The experience was one I will never forget. Full of unique flavors and textures I loved everything I ate. However, I can’t help but think at least fifty percent of the cost was the ability to brag afterward. The food was the appetizer. Other’s jealousy was the entrée. The Menu which debuted at Fantastic Fest yesterday is the schadenfreude that comes from the food poisoning after the meal. That is not to say the movie made me sick, but rather it unctuous and decadent. Like any good meal should.

Every major city has at least a dozen or two top notch restaurants. I am slightly afraid this review will come off as hating foodie culture. I love good food. Perhaps people may refer to me as a foodie. I have eaten at a number of unique farm to table restaurants that do not believe in putting salt, pepper, sugar or other sweetener on the table. If there is a voice in the back of your head that occasionally whispers when a waiter reminds you that the chef never substitutes ingredients “this might be a bit much’ The Menu is your thing. It certainly was for me.

We meet Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) as they wait for the ferry. This ferry will take them to a fully immersive gastronomical experience at Chef Slowik’s (Ralph Fiennes) newest establishment. This restaurant sits on its own island. At 1250$ a head even the world’s most elite must know someone to get a reservation. Tyler has been waiting a very long time for a reservation. After a recent breakup his newest love interest Margot is the beneficiary of his plus one when his reservation finally comes due. As the night plays out over a series of courses the evenings guests get an experience they do not expect. That is really all of the plot you need.

The Menu is a dark as night horror comedy. The snappy script punches every joke with a nod and a wink to the cooking shows that have become staples of American pop culture. During the Q and A after the movie the director (Mark Mylod) mentioned they had the show runner for Netflix’s Chef’s Table as a creative consultant. It shows. The food looks gorgeous, and the recipes sound plausible enough. Each course (and chapter of the film) flashes up on screen alongside a brief description of what is in the dish/scene. Is it preparation for what is about to come or simply a recipe so others can reproduce it?

It only makes it that much better when the jokes deflate the pretension of both consumers and chefs. And boy are there jokes. Lots of them. Mylod mentioned the rag tag bunch of elites often created their own spontaneous humorous banter that gives the movie its wit. In what should surprise no one John Leguizamo would often lead the charge. Whoever wrote the jokes, they work.

Taylor-Joy and Fiennes bring a gravitas to their roles which only add to the often farcical situations they find themselves in. Throughout their interactions the meat (lol) of the story unfolds and we get a glimmer or two of what lies beneath the jokes and jabs. There is a discussion in this movie of what happens when we devote so much of ourselves into providing a service to others (the teacher in me is rapidly nodding his head). Are you a taker or are you a giver? One of them or one of us? Chef asks Margot that very question and its easy to dismiss it as overly reductive or part of the humor except it isn’t and doesn’t. We are either the help or the helped.

Nicholas Hoult’s Tyler is the empty but affable character some may recognize from his time on The Great. He isn’t asked to do much and his turn at the end is not entirely unexpected. Affable cruelty is an archetype he seems to have locked down and we see all of it in throughout the course(s) of the film.

The Menu, like the other big budget horror movie I reviewed earlier in the festival, is not groundbreaking. What it does offer is an eat the rich attitude that somehow doesn’t take itself too serious. Fans of horror comedies like Ready or Not will feel right at home in this actual Hell’s Kitchen. If Ratatouille took place on Fleet Street it might feel a bit like The Menu. If you have had an amuse bouche in a restaurant with a one word literary name, this is the movie for you. You should be hungry for The Menu when it starts taking reservations on November 18.