The Menu

Everyone eats, of course, but not everyone eats the same, whether kinds of foods or preparation, or with an eye toward allergies or special nutritional requirements. Some people just go about their business eating food and it’s not a big deal in their lives. Others dedicate everything to food.

The movie begins messing with your head with the opening title card that does not say Searchlight Pictures “presents”, but “invites you to experience”. The invitation to the viewer causes them to become more involved in the story and relate to the main characters who have paid over twelve thousand dollars a seat to have dinner on the exclusive island run by the supposed world’s best chef. There is a movie star, played by someone we’ve seen lampoon themselves before, a vicious movie critic and her fawning acolyte, some Wall Street bros, an intense young man who berates the woman he’s with as they wait for the boat because she’s ruining her palate by smoking a cigarette. Yeah, he’s one of those.

Happily, I did not watch the trailer ahead of time, and I recommend you don’t as well. As with too many modern movie trailers it shows too much of the plot, and exactly what kind of movie it is.  Part of the fun is discovering what kind of madness you’re watching until it grabs you by the collar and drags you along to the end. I was going for some kind of modifier for the word “end”, but you just have to see the movie to understand why I couldn’t without giving too much away.

A fair amount of the film is spent poking a lot of mean fun at extreme foodies. As I am a person who simply eats food instead of devoting my life to it, that humor was not wasted on me. I related more to the cigarette smoker who, on first encountering the gastronomic island exclaims, “We have reached the base camp of Mount Bullshit.” The producers absolutely hired that actress on her eye rolling ability. But she’s not wrong to critique the island, as the foodies are not allowed to critique the food. There is a looming sense of menace that drips like the grease from a cheap burger, delicious and satisfying.  

As the five hour meal progresses, discussions between people at the various tables give the film the occasional Waiting for Godot feel, and their characters are revealed more fully than you might expect. It also gives a chance to show how everyone who works on the island seems to have preternaturally good hearing and slowly turn up the heat until, well, I won’t say. The film goes to places you wouldn’t expect, and as with the very, very beginning of the movie, the very, very end moment has a cute musical twist to give the viewer one last little jab. Made me laugh.

I won’t say this movie is inoffensive, because some people are going to feel called out. The written descriptions do not convey enough to prepare a viewer, and that’s great. Be sure to avoid the trailer because it gives away too much of this surprising movie that has great mouth feel and interesting lingering notes of oooh and wow.

LINKS:

• The Menu – Official Website
• The Menu – IMDB
• The Menu – Wikipedia

CFR: In Addition:

When I saw The Menu in the review email Mildred had sent me I smiled for joy. I do so like that movie and I so wanted to read what Mildred wrote. I got a good laugh at the “mouth feel” description of the movie too.

The movie was well made, well acted, and kept you guessing on the edge of your seat at all times. You’ve never seen anything like this and might not again for a long time. The whole movie was impressive. And a bit oppressive as it went on and the intention of the Chef became clear.

The rest of my review will involve SPOILERS so if you wish to stop here then know I agree with Mildred: Go see this movie. If you have seen it or don’t care about spoilers (I personally don’t) the continue reading.

Hubby and I watched this at home and both liked it. We both agreed that we would have been thrilled to go to the island and eat the chef’s food because neither of us are critics, we just love food. I wonder if our wide-eyed enjoyment and excitement about every dish would have kept us alive. Oh and we both really wanted that cheeseburger

The other thing I kept thinking while watching that movie was self-defense and fighting back. I would be enraged at being brought to an island to be murdered. Plus I LOVE smores and being burned to death is just not something for this life time.

So I guess I was frustrated with myself of not figuring out how to survive. Like Margot/Erin did. I also enjoyed that she was smarter than me and the other person in the room who was not one of the elite understood the chef.

I still would have wanted to punch/shoot someone. Then again, I probably wouldn’t have been invited due to the aforementioned enthusiasm for eating.

Below is a very fun video giving an explanation of the movie and the cheeseburger in the end. I enjoyed the video summation and wanted to share.

Now to call my friend who is a chef – I LOVE his restaurant – and see if he is alright. Like I said earlier, I love to eat.