The Menu

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 *review starts @ 45:12

🎙️ EPISODE 660: 03.08.23 Part of 2022 Week! I just finished recording the pod and, frankly, I'm drained. This is the last movie I watched and am now reviewing for good ole 2022 Week, another stupid concept I came up for this website. Even though it's coming out here in the middle of the week, it's the last one I watched sequentially. Little peek behind the curtain here, folks. Sometimes I do these things out of order! EXTRA! EXTRA! (Nobody cares.) This was a weird and wild one to go out on. Thematically, this was the strongest triple feature of the 15 films examined this week, paired with the equally overt social satire Triangle of Sadness and the Knives Out/Rian Johnson joint, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery brought to you by NETFLIX's Knives Out BA-BUMP (Netflix logo chime), which I wouldn't call a satire but also shares a similar "UGH RICH PEOPLE ARE THE WORST!" vibe/sentiment. It's also just one of two horror genre films I looked at for this gimmicky week (the other one comes out on Friday and — SPOILER — that might be my favorite of the whole bunch PERIOD).

But this one is really good too! Helmed by the guy who made Ali G Indahouse (2002), The Menu lampoons "foodie culture" by daring to ask the question, "Hey what if one of the most famous chefs on the planet went fucking nuts and decided to murder a bunch of worthless loser elites as well as his entire staff who follow him down the sicko rabbit hole Jim James style to their deaths as well?" You know, the plot line we've all been waiting for. I'm so tired.

Whereas Triangle brought the BLACKNESS to the black comedy sub-genre, this certainly delivers on the HORROR front as far as horror-comedies go. I have to sit with it a little longer, but I think the latter's avenue is better-suited for this type of farce. (Horror-comedies are really tricky to pull off well, in general— in my opinion. And I'm sure pure horror junkies will think there's not enough blood and guts, honestly.)

When it comes down to it, both films work because they're extremely engaging and entertaining. The ensemble casts work to bring these "hit you over the head with a sledgehammer" ideas to life without them feeling too preachy or annoying. Ralph Fiennes, in particular, is THE essential ingredient (SORRY!) to this being a success. He's on the verge of tears the entire time and it feels real despite the absolutely insane premise. It is a bit strange that 2022 saw such an influx in this sub sub-genre (let's call it "literally kill the rich"-core?). I do have major concerns that this is gonna get played out fast if we continue down the path, though.

There's also not a whole lot to be said re picking apart the themes and ideas, because they're just SO obvious. (So, naturally, this is the longest podcast of the week— go figure.) Triangle definitely wore theirs on the sleeve with much more of a wink, which has me worrying/wondering about intent in this case. But that's a slippery slope. I think it's great that so many talented and brand name actors (especially in this one) are going for it given the subject matter and what is still essentially a genre pic. Give me unique and original cinema over something bland that we've seen before any day of the week.

But I definitely walked away from The Menu feeling drained. Not necessarily a bad thing — it's always nice to feel SOMETHING — but the outlook here is BLEAK.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 660B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 661A ⫸

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The Menu is a 2022 American comedy horror film directed by Mark Mylod, written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, based on an original story created by Tracy, produced by Adam McKay, Betsy Koch and Will Ferrell, and starring Ralph Fiennes as a celebrity chef with Hong Chau playing his assistant and Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo playing diners who attend his exclusive restaurant. It was released on September 10, 2022.