A friend described The Menu as “Midsommar for the working class,” and that feels like a fairly succinct way of describing what the film is going for. The Menu is a prix fixe menu of comedy amuse-bouches and social commentary appetizers building towards a main of horror that, while well plated, might be slightly underdone. The latest in a modern subgenre of horror that is saying something, The Menu looks good, tastes good, but won’t win any Michelin stars.
Ralph Fiennes plays Julian Slowik, a Gordon Ramsey type celebrity chef whose career has risen from fry cook to TV host to culinary idol. With the exception of the opening scene and a short palette cleanser mid film, the movie takes place entirely within the dining room and kitchen of Hawthorne, Slowik’s restaurant sequestered away on a private island catering bespoke experimental meals to the influential and rich. A “bread without bread” sort of place. Joining Slowik for this sitting are a collection of immediately suspicious diners, the only ones who get any real attention or detail being Nicholas Hoult as a desperate social media foodie, and his last minute date Margo (Anna Taylor-Joy), whose presence throws off the tenure of the meal. The rest of the guests are a collection of character actors filling two dimensional roles (John Leguizamo’s character doesn’t even get a name) that the film is interested in exploring only enough to let us know that we don’t have to know more about them. We learn almost nothing about any of the kitchen staff, and their individual motivations were the ones I was most interested in. It would be nice to know why this meal was the one they chose to serve.
It is no spoilers to say that Slowik doesn’t like the people he’s serving. The food he prepares is an indictment of those eating it. His distain for his customers is reflected in the stories he tells before each course, each a morality tale of a failing that has led all of them to be together this night. Then, as the second act opens, a twist occurs that then hangs over the rest of the film. It’s enough of a left hook not to say exactly what it is, and it certainly changes the tone of the film. The problem being, it comes too soon and there are too many courses left before we get to dessert. The viewer marinates in the new paradigm for too long, and the film recognizes this, but insists on keeping cooking. It has a straight forward tale of disgust to tell, but like a lean meal being packed with filler, the plot is bulked out by horror tropes that are too pedestrian for the refined palette of The Menu. A chase sequence, or more egregiously, a confrontation is a prep kitchen feel out of place. Like walking into a BBQ joint and seeing oysters on the board, you question why this was added, and what is it adding.
I’ll also say, personally the ending didn’t work for me. Or rather, that the film tries to have it both ways doesn’t work. Without going into too much detail, if the premise the films lays out and seemingly commits to through the majority of it’s run time is the statement it wants to make, then the minor pivot - to my mind, seemingly existing only to conform to the most tired of horror movie conventions - betrays that premise. If Slowik is as committed to his menu as he seems, I do no buy the film’s a la carte option.
That all being said, I did enjoy the film. Fiennes is the linchpin performance, his gravitas and command provide the backbone needed when the cartilage of secondary characters starts to lose shape. Fiennes isn’t flashy in his performance. While Ramsey is clearly the template, this isn’t caricature. Slowik has grace, and dignity, and trauma, and Fiennes finds all of it. He is frightening in his tranquility, and his position - while extreme - is understandable. His rationale to Margo about half way through rings of someone having realized Platonic truths. He’s seen the light, emerged from the cave, and realized how shit it all is up here. He’s ascended Olympus, and hates the gods.
I “blame” The Purge for this post-Occupy subgenre of horror films that are really just filmmakers pointing to extravagance, privilege, and imbalance in society and saying “fuck these guys.” Movies of the rich literally preying on the poor have exploded. No longer is the eighties vein of anonymous killer hunting innocent bystanders the norm. Now, it’s the already victimized (whether they realize it or not) struggling to survive in a game that is rigged for the killer from the start. wE liVe In a SocIeTY, says films like Ready or Not, The Invisible Man, or Barbarian (all films that you should definitely check out). These films are catharsis, in that here if not in reality, the victims can get justice.
Which is what makes the idea of The Menu so mouthwatering. Here is a situation where the chef is already in the kitchen. The one with the power wants to use that power against his equals, because he remembers a time when he wasn’t equal. When he was lesser. When he spent his life striving for something, and is now left to wonder why? And if this were a straight forward, told-through-the-allegory-of-pretentious-food horror film of a chef trimming the fat of society, I would be all in. I feel like the film gets lost in the weeds of Margo. By setting her up as someone who can empathize but not support Slowik, it undermines the teeth of the story. The point is to finish the meal, not get a doggie bag to nimble on later.
The Menu is available to stream and purchase.
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The Hunt
The Hunt got screwed, hard. Originally meant to be released in September 2019, two mass shooting in the US prompted Universal to delay the release until a film about people being hunted for sport might be less provocative (reminds me of when Big Trouble was delayed in 2001 because of a third act sequence involving a bomb on an airplane being deemed “too soon” after 9/11). It was ultimately released one week before the first COVID lockdowns, and then was dumped onto streaming. The net result is that most people likely haven’t seen it.
And that is a damned shame. Because The Hunt is a hell of a lot of fun. Unlike The Menu (which is horror and light comedy), The Hunt is complete satire. From front to back, start to finish, this is political commentary with edge. From Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse (son of Lindelof’s LOST writing partner Carlton), this is Red State/Blue State Running Man. The contempt for online discourse, conspiracy theories, and the state of American politics oozes off the screen, buoyed by performances by Betty Gilpin, Ethan Suplee, Glenn Howerton, and a third act surprise appearance that will be spoiled if you google the film but is so much better if you go in cold.
Yes, humans are hunted for sport in this film. Yes, it gets very gory very quickly. The opening bloodbath sets the tone and sets the characters running, as traps detonate, bullets fly, and all the while the film is poking you in the eye with how utterly ridiculous this all is. But ridiculous in a surprisingly grounded way. This isn’t John Wick. There are no superhuman theatrics in The Hunt. It’s out of shape people throwing bad punches, getting winded, having their actions have consequences. The final confrontation is delicious in how brutally real it feels (and yet, at the same time, is hilarious somehow). And it commits. It commits to the premise, the character remain true to their ideals, and the film never wavers in it’s message: we’re all fucked.