BTDub Reviews: The Menu by Mark Mylod

Title - The Menu

Directed by - Mark Mylod

Genre - Black Comedy/Horror

Release date - November 18th, 2022

Watched on - January 12th, 2023

***SPOILER-FREE REVIEW***

Thank you, Chef Mylod, for bringing The Menu to my table. Deliciously dark and full of twisted humor, The Menu is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time.

Directed by Mark Mylod, The Menu follows a young couple that travels to a luxurious restaurant on a remote island, hosted by an award-winning chef who has prepared an unusual menu for his guests. While the film is listed as a black comedy horror film, I think that black comedy thriller is more appropriate. This film had me switching back and forth between laughter and stunned silence (usually followed by more laughter) - but at no point was I scared.

The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult, with an excellent support cast that includes Hong Chau, John Leguizamo, Janet McTeer, and several others. The whole cast fell into their roles perfect, bringing these varied, and often insufferable, personalities to life. Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, however, are the stars of the show for me.

Anya plays Margot, who is on a date to the exclusive Hawthorn restaurant with a foodie named Tyler, played by Nicholas Hoult. She’s not nearly the foodie that Tyler is, but she's relatable compared to the rest of the restaurant guests - which includes a food reviewer, an actor, some corporate executives, to name a few. As an audience member, I immediately knew who I was rooting for in the story.

And whose restaurant is it that brings all these people together for a harrowing night? None other than Chef Slowik, played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes. Ralph Fiennes always impresses me, but this might be my favorite role of his to date. This isn’t a case of watching Ralph Fiennes pretending to be Gordon Ramsay, yelling at his staff and using expletives for dramatic effect. Chef Slowik is calm and collected, but incredibly confident in himself, and more importantly, his menu. He can (and will) make the entire room listen to him with a single clap of his hands.

As someone who has spent years watching both high and low brow cooking shows on Netflix, this film’s style and editing delighted me. Without spoiling, the movie does a ton of clever things that remind me of the artful cooking shows I’ve watched on Netflix - but it takes them in directions I hadn't imagined.

The Menu also seems like a film that will benefit from additional viewings, as it’s packed with clever ingredients that are easy to miss.

With all this in mind, if you have an HBO Max account, this is an easy recommendation from me!

Score: ***** (Out of 5)