“The Menu” kept me hungry for more
By Josie Martinez, Reporter
“The Menu”, streaming on HBOMax, is directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. It follows the story of a young couple—Margot and Tyler played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult—going to an island retreat to meet a renowned chef who has created an opulent tasting menu. It soon takes a turn that plunges their world into chaos.
Themes can make or break a movie, and they make this one. There are lots of well-written themes in this film, but the main ones that make it a point to call out are consumer culture and parasocial relationships. “The Menu” highlights two important topics— consumer culture and parasocial relationships, specifically through Hoult’s character, Tyler. His personal despair to catch the attention of Chef Slowik shows us the culmination of this challenging culture and how hard it is to break away from consumer culture.
Through Tyler and Slowik, we see some form of a parasocial relationship and how much of a detriment it is to him. Slowik couldn’t care less about Tyler, but Tyler seems to think otherwise. He takes everything the chef does as some kind of hidden meaning, and ultimately it leads to his demise and deterioration of his mental state. The film shows how poorly parasocial relationships can end up and how important they are to be avoided.
Despite the overall impressive performances, the movie just feels lacking. There’s not one specific thing that makes it feel this way, but at the end of it, you’re left with the feeling of ‘not enough.’ The ending of the movie feels lackluster and vague. The beginning did not connect to the end in a way that made sense and left people confused and feeling like there should’ve been more to it. Chef Slowik did not give the ‘horror vibe’ everyone was hoping for, and it left the world feeling a little empty. He was creepy, but definitely not what was expected of a horror film.
However, “The Menu” does have a brilliant cast who can appropriately bring the satirical parts of the film to life. Anya Taylor-Joy’s character, Margot, is portrayed wonderfully and gives the viewers a much needed break from all of the insanity going on within the other characters. Her witty humor contradicts everyone’s proper personality and is what really gives a refreshing aspect to the movie.
Chef Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes, is another role that contrasts from the others. Despite him being fun for the movie by giving us a different perspective to look through, it feels as though he wasn’t really thought out and it was a last minute decision to include him. While this could just be the feel the director was going for, a confused artist who’s struggling with his identity, there are ways in which it could’ve been done without leaving viewers wanting more.
Nicholas Hoult playing Tyler was an excellent choice, especially when paired with Taylor-Joy and Fiennes. He is able to perfectly bounce off the other characters and gives us an accurate performance of the phoniness we see in day-to-day life.
“The Menu” gives us an accurate look into the dangerous effects of consumer culture and parasocial relationships, but ultimately just misses the mark. The atmosphere of the film is very well done, and it is almost a brilliant movie, but some aspects make it hard to finish it feeling satisfied. With a little more thought put into the final product, this movie could’ve been one of the best of 2023.
Rating: 8.5/10