The Menu (2022)

Directed by Mark Mylod [Other horror films: N/A]

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Menu – I’d see bits of the trailer, and I could tell it was obviously a high budget production, but as to the story or tone, I wasn’t sure. Sure, I’d seen the film labeled both a black comedy and a satire, but it’s hard to know if that applies without actually seeing the movie for yourself.

And after seeing it, I can say that it was most definitely unique. Insofar as how much I enjoyed it, it’s hard to say – based off the story, I sort of wish I liked it a bit more. That said, I still found it quite a solid and interesting film, and while it’s quite atypical in many aspects, I do think it’s worth experiencing.

First off, I have to admit I got some vibes of The Dinner Party at points. The Dinner Party was a movie I despised quite a bit, as I found it overly pretentious in pretty much every way. The difference, though, is that The Menu is making fun of such pretensions – being a satire and going after the wealthy, such can be expected – and I thought that The Menu did a great job at that.

I should also add that while ‘black comedy’ may be a suitable description of the film, there’s not a ton of laugh-out-loud moments. There were a couple – that line about substitutions cracked me up – but more often than not, it’s a dark and sometimes uncomfortable film that may have you chuckling now and again, but outright guffaws, at least in my view, are rare. I don’t think that this hurts the film any – it’s sort of nice to see a film that’s more low-key with it’s humor – but I did think it was worth mentioning.

There are a bunch of performances in this film, but only a handful really stand out to me. First-and-foremost, I have to give a lot of props to Ralph Fiennes. This was an absolutely stellar performance from Fiennes (who I know mostly as Voldemort from the Harry Potter films, but was also in Red Dragon), and he nailed his role beautifully. In fact, I’m only more torn on Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Marrowbone, The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, Last Night in Soho, Split) because Fiennes did such a solid job, and Taylor-Joy’s character was sort of hard to get a read on (though this was by design).

Otherwise, while there are some familiar faces, such as John Leguizamo (Vanishing on 7th Street, Night Owl, Land of the Dead), Reed Birney (The Hunt), and Janet McTeer (Jessica Jones), no one else adds near as much as Fiennes or Taylor-Joy. Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) was a prick much of the time, but he got dressed down beautifully, so that was fun. Overall great performances in this film, despite the fact only a few really stand out.

Given this is more a satire than a straight-out horror-comedy, none of the violence is over-the-top, or at least humorously over-the-top. There are some disturbing scenes of emotional distress – not something I’d usually mention, to be sure – which are beautifully uncomfortable, and the violence we get is all fun

Tentatively, because The Menu isn’t an easy movie to exactly describe, I’d say that I enjoyed it. I can’t say I loved it, but I did find it a rather unique experience, and for that fact alone, I’d argue it may well be worth seeing, as I imagine the right audience would get a kick out of this one.

8/10