The Menu Review

The Menu is a film which comes directed by Mark Mylod who some may know as the director of several episodes of Succession (2018). The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau and John Leguizamo.

According to IMDB the synopsis of the film is as follows “A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.”

When I first heard of this film, I was interested in it because of the cast it has. There’s a variety of good actors here and I had high hopes that there would be some decent performances from them. Anya Taylor Joy was really good in this film and so was Ralph Fiennes. There were also some good moments from John Leguizamo who wasn’t in the film too much whe butn he was, he was entertaining. John Leguizamo seems to be having a good year in film, with another good appearance in Violent Night (2022) which is also currently in cinemas, you can see my review for that one here.

The Menu was a well-written film. The opening act sets the scene and the characters up perfectly. As a viewer, you are slowly introduced to the group of characters and it’s done in a way that you get a good idea of the type of people they are. The whole film kind of makes fun of upper-class posh culture, with a variety of actors, food critics, and rich investors invited to a lavish restaurant on an island to eat some food. It’s great!

There are also some elements and moments in the film where it almost feels like it’s leaning more towards becoming a horror film but seems to pull back away from going too far so it kind of stays as a violent thriller. I thought this was an interesting choice by the director to do because if he wanted to, this could have been a pretty gory horror film, but it wasn’t and it didn’t need to be.

One thing that I also appreciated in this film was the colour palette. There are a lot of dark browns, greens, and reds all over this movie. I really liked it all looked and the use of colour does a lot to reflect the uncomfortable setting the characters are in. These colours looked excellent on the cinema screen and I love when this happens. It’s a good-looking movie.

As we come to the end of 2022. There’s been a lot of films released and The Menu was a well-written film with a unique story and setting that I haven’t really seen much of this year to compare it to anything. It feels fresh and I like that. The actors were all great and I loved the tense setting they were all in. Watching the film unfold as the characters tried to deal with this maniac chef on a private island as he serves them the worst dishes, was a lot of fun. I recommend seeing this film if you’re looking for an intense thriller that’s a little scary, but don’t really want to see a horror film. The cast, writing and directing make this a must-see film this year.