The Menu (2022)
Director: Mark Mylod
Writers: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang, Janet McTeer
The Menu blends dark comedy, social satire, and a measure of horror to serve a sharp commentary on wealth, taste, and the cult of culinary prestige. Directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, the film stages a single, tense evening on a private island where a celebrated chef’s carefully curated dinner turns into a devastatingly controlled performance. The result is entertaining and provocative, though it doesn’t completely satisfy by the final course.
The plot centers on Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), an unexpected guest among a collection of wealthy, entitled patrons who arrive to experience Chef Julian Slowik’s (Ralph Fiennes) exclusive ten-course tasting menu. Each course is staged as both a culinary event and a moral lesson, revealing the characters’ pretensions and Slowik’s mounting disillusionment with the world he feeds. What begins as elegant absurdity quickly tilts into something far more sinister and theatrical.
The film’s opening act is a tightly constructed setup that introduces the eccentric and grotesque cast of characters: a self-important movie star, a circle of investment bankers, an acerbic food critic, and others who embody the extremes of privilege. These guests are caricatures in the best sense—exaggerated enough to be funny, but still recognizable as real types who populate conversations about wealth and taste. The script balances pointed satire with a steady undercurrent of menace, making the early sections both witty and unsettling.
Ralph Fiennes delivers a standout performance as Chef Slowik. He commands every scene with a combination of precision and unpredictability. Slowik’s presence—measured, intense, occasionally eruptive—anchors the film’s power dynamics. Fiennes shifts between a composed director of culinary art and a man unraveling under the weight of betrayal and disillusionment, keeping the audience unsure whether to pity or fear him.
The movie uses food as a storytelling device, transforming each course into a commentary on consumption and class. Some dishes are deliberately austere or conceptual, underscoring the emotional distance of the affluent diners who prize novelty and status over nourishment and comfort. A course served on a rock with flowers and seawater becomes emblematic: it’s visually striking but practically unfulfilling, mirroring the guests’ hollow pursuits. The way the film links cuisine to identity and power is often clever and frequently unnerving.
Where The Menu falters is in its handling of Margot’s character and the narrative’s latter half. Anya Taylor-Joy is magnetic but the film struggles to convincingly sell her supposed outsider status. Her background and sudden role as moral center feel underdeveloped; the movie leans on her charisma rather than giving her a fully textured arc. As the tension escalates, the story increasingly depends on Margot as a foil to the exaggerated villains, and that dynamic leaves some emotional threads unresolved.
Tonally, the film is effective for long stretches: darkly funny, sharp in its observations, and visually compelling. Yet its critique of consumer culture and elite entitlement is familiar, arriving at a time when audiences have already seen multiple satires about wealth and spectacle. The screenplay nails specific moments of cultural critique, but overall it rarely surprises if you’re versed in contemporary satires about capitalism and celebrity.
Still, The Menu offers much to admire. Its craftsmanship—direction, performances, production design, and the way it stages food as theatrical moralism—makes it a memorable watch. The film’s strength lies in its ability to be both entertaining and unnerving, to marry laughs with a genuine sense of dread. It may not reinvent the social satire genre, but it serves a distinct voice and leaves a lasting impression.
For viewers interested in films that interrogate taste, class, and theatricality, The Menu is a provocative, stylish piece of cinema. It doesn’t fully satisfy every appetite, but its cleverness and performances make it worth experiencing.
Score: 16/24
Written by Emi Grant
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