Directed by: Mark Mylod
Rating: 3 1/2 stars
The Menu is a satirical thriller film by director Mark Mylod that premiered on November 18th, 2022. The film stars notable actors such as Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Fiennes, and Nicholas Hoult in roles that leave the audience wanting more and on the edge of their seats as they continue to watch in suspense of the fates of all those who enter Chef Slowik’s Hawthorne restaurant. It's a film that continues the theme of class and making fun of the 1% that has been trendy lately with films such as Knives Out: Glass Onion and Parasite being critically acclaimed and popular in the box office. When first watching the beginning of The Menu, there is much to expect as the audience is introduced to the film’s main characters Margot and Tyler. They are going to travel through a yacht with other wealthy patrons of Chef Slowik to his private island to eat a 10-course meal that is priced at $1250 per person. Margot’s character who from the beginning is seen as an outsider who was invited by Tyler, a food connoisseur widens her eyes once she is told how expensive the meal will be and remarks, “What are we eating a Rolex?” Tyler doesn't seem to pay attention to his date and is much more interested in telling Margot all about the restaurant, food and the chef. Quickly once the pair is on the yacht the audience is quickly introduced to the other characters of the film while they are on their journey to the island and swiftly we are made aware that many of the characters besides Margot are stereotypical snobby wealthy people who don’t care for the quality of the food they will be eating but more for the prestige they’ll be experiencing as they are going to the infamous Chef Slowik’s Hawthorne restaurant that has a long waitlist and is notoriously known to be difficult to get into. Once the characters are dropped off at the island, the yacht that brought them to the island quickly sails away leaving them stuck on a remote island. This foreshadows what is to come for the characters later on in the movie as they are trapped and in the hand of Chef Slowik and his staff. Once they are on the island the characters are introduced to Elsa, Slowik’s assistant and waitress at Hawthorne. Elsa’s character serves as the antithesis to the wealthier side characters as she is part of the staff at the restaurant who lives full time at the island and has a cold exterior that serves to inform the characters on the features of the island and how the food they will be eating is prepared and harvested, as well as by not putting up with their rude and petty remarks. Elsa stands as a cold character that makes the audience feel uneasy yet the audience comes to like her character as she is not afraid to stand up to the rude guests who feel entitled in many scenes of the film. As the characters are escorted around the island, Margot notices the cabin where the mysterious Chef Slowik lives. She then asks Elsa about the cabin and if they would be allowed to tour his space, but Margot is interrupted by Elsa briskly telling Margot that Slowik’s cabin is off limits and even the staff are barred from entering this area of the island. This scene plants the idea that Chef Slowik is a mysterious and almost unreachable figure in the island. Once the tour of the island is over, the characters are brought to the restaurant to start the 10-course meal and this is when the audience and characters are finally introduced to Chef Julian Slowik, the film’s main antagonist.
Chef Slowik is a disillusioned chef who has dedicated his entire life to his craft and has seemingly lost his passion for cooking as a result of investors and wealthy patrons who have continuously demanded more and more from him over the years. As Margot later goes on to explain towards the end of the film, Chef Slowik no longer cooks with love and instead cooks with obsession and precision. His food while being delicious is cold and lifeless as Slowik was forced to adapt to the palettes of his patrons over the years and subsequently lost his passion for cooking. As a form of revenge, Slowik masterminds a 10-course meal in his investor’s remote island that shows the magnum opus of what his life has become, sorrowful and serves as a last supper for everyone on the island. The audience watches as Fiennes gives a career defining performance as Chef Slowik psychologically torturing his ungrateful wealthy patrons as they eat his food by mocking the pretentiousness of the upper class through his courses and “performance art.”
While The Menu continues the theme of mocking the elite in our society, it does it in such a way that allows the audience to see just how the rigidness of our elite and capitalist society burdens those who are forced to cater the 1%. Ralph Fienne’s character of Chef Slowik shows how everyone has a limit and once that limit is pushed, consequences are soon to reveal themselves. As the movie comes to an end, the outsider Margot was the only one allowed to leave the island with her life by challenging Chef Slowik and reminding him why he first became a chef in the first place: the joy of cooking for loved ones.
Margot and Chef Slowik are two sides fo the same coin, they are both workers in the service industry but one breaks from the pressure of high demands and the other treats their job as a profession and leaves it at that still living their life. In the end, the other characters of the film who represent the ruin of Chef Slowik’s art and life and consequently become part of the 10-course meal themselves and burn alive as s’mores - the most offensive assault on the human palate ever contrived.
Comments