Quick Review on “The Menu”(2022)
Written by Victor DeBonis
It brings me delight to see a type of movie, such as “The Menu” that carries a daring, razor-sharp presence to it and rarely holds back. Ralph Fiennes is downright intimidating as the head chef and takes no prisoners as he mocks the vastly wealthy clientele of the evening. He comes from one of the more intriguing types of villains, specifically, the kind that rarely raises his voice in anger at those that he finds beneath him but doesn’t need to. All of his vicious presence traces from his cold stares and how he ruthlessly exposes the people around him at their weakest core.
The rest of the cast does fantastic at their roles at representing some people from the wealthy who think that their job and money provides them everything that they need to do whatever they choose. A few of my favorite actors include the always-terrific character actor, John Leguizamo, who plays a former actor who has seen better days and wears a smile that only holds for so long before he bickers with his self-absorbed assistant and Janet McTeer who portrays a food critic that has her moments of vulnerability mixed with her moments of clear-as-day disdain with her husband.
Anya Taylor-Joy is superb as always, and she possesses the most level-headed demeanor out of literally everyone in the room. When shenanigans begin, she doesn’t hesitate from revealing her fear but doesn’t restrain from voicing her thoughts about the experience beyond the horror that takes place. I do wish that we knew more about her character, however. Nicholas Hoult fantastically conveys a foolishness and the frustration of someone trying too hard to sound wiser than he truly is.
Easily, one of the best parts about “The Menu” is how it mocks those who can use their greater wealth and higher status not necessarily in the best way and get lost and arrogant with what they have. Most of the characters who come to this restaurant are not great people, but I found myself fascinated with them discussing what their lives were like and providing a window to how disrupted and out of order their lives are in spite of their job-related success and excellent financial state.
Many have known or come across people who have plenty of money but don’t act in the best way towards others or even those that they are married or related to, and there are some, such as myself, that have known those who lost sight of their nicer values and presence when they got a hold of greater money than before. Money, to paraphrase they saying, ultimately doesn’t buy happiness, and it doesn’t justify someone to do or say whatever they choose in spite of what some might try to suggest otherwise. Keeping to this idea, the characters in this film abuse their wealth and greater economic power and even try to use it to disguise how fake the “goodness” in their life is and how they choose to abuse what they have. In a strange way, you don’t necessarily agree with Fiennes in what he does with his customers, but you also understand a bit of his frustrations with them and the horrible things that they do. Yet, the script and the actors are both great at providing enough humor and humanity to such broken people that you do feel a bit bad when the scenario with the restaurant gets ugly.
The deliveries and lines from the actors resulted in numerous laughs, including from me, and it was an absolute blast to laugh with the audience and gasp in horror from how insane and vicious things got as the evening continued for this unfortunate clientele of this twisted restaurant. One scene had me gaping for three solid minutes after the abruptness of what occurred, and that has rarely happened for me with a theatrical movie all year. The sheer insanity and different turns that this story took often left me and the rest of the audience legitimately wondering what would happen next and left me leaning on the edge of my side for the majority of this film in a way that not every film managed to do for me this year, This was easily one of the best theatrical experiences that I had all year, and I loved every minute of it.
More thrillers and dark comedies should take notes from movies, such as this. I’m coming back hungry for more intelligent, well-written, and well-acted stuff, such as this, in the future for sure.
A