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Movies & TV trailers

The Menu Puts the Pain in Ralph Fiennes’ Painstakingly Planned Meal

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Published on August 10, 2022

Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures
Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures

The Menu looks a bit like what might happen if Hannibal (Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, to be precise) had his own private island and a considerable staff. Though there’s not quite enough meat on the table… at least not just yet.

The summary for Mark Mylod’s new film is very brief: “A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.” But what else do you need to know? He’s the foodie who says things like “mouthfeel” and slaps her hand when she wants to eat before he’s ‘grammed a dish. She’s the skeptic. Which seems the wiser thing to be, at least when Fiennes says, “I have to know if you’re with us, or with them.” Them clearly means the diners, who have spent $1250 per person—excuse me, per “head”—to be there.

Somebody clearly had fun designing the dishes for this movie; they include one that’s stabbed with tiny scissors. “Here we are family,” says Hong Chau (Watchmen‘s Lady Trieu). “We harvest. We ferment. We gel.”

Do we? Who is the “we” here? Are we, personally, fermenting? It sounds uncomfortable. Director Mylod has six Game of Thrones episodes under his belt (along with episodes of Succession and Shameless) so he probably knows a few things about horrible stuff happening to bodies. The screenplay is by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, who have written for Late Night with Seth Myers (Reiss), Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Tracy), and The Onion News Network (both).

The Menu also stars the formidable Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, and Judith Light. Make your reservation for November 18th.


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Molly Templeton

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Molly Templeton has been a bookseller, an alt-weekly editor, and assistant managing editor of Tor.com, among other things. She now lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods.
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