HBO’s Succession has become the cream of the crop for skewering the ultra-wealthy. It’s all at once wildly entertaining, insightful, and bitingly critical of the power wielded by the “1% of the 1%.” Mark Mylod deserves tons of credit for the show’s success, having directed 13/29 episodes. Succession is one of my favorite shows (no shock there) so I was looking forward to The Menu, his newest feature film directorial effort.
Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) is a massive foodie, representing everything others who make of fun of these people make fun of them for. He revels in his knowledge of the minutia, clearly thinking highly of himself for possessing such grand knowledge. He has finally scored a reservation to Hawthorne, maybe the most exclusive restaurant in the world. Hawthorne is located on an island, all by itself, and renowned chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) further creates an air of exclusivity by limiting each meal to only 12 guests. If you’re like Tyler, or you have to gain access to experiences like this just to prove you can, a dinner at Hawthorne is on everyone’s to-do list.
Tyler’s date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), however, fits into neither of those groups. It’s made clear early on that Margot was a late replacement for Tyler, who seemingly booked the dinner with a recently-ended relationship. Margot is there because, why not? But she’s not into the whole pomp and circumstance of it all.
Upon arriving at the island, everything seems…off. Tyler is oblivious; he’s in heaven. The other guests notice some quirks, but don’t seem to bothered by it. But Margot feels uneasy from the moment they arrive. She knows something is off, but can’t quite put it all together.
The strangeness continues as they sit down for the first course. The cooks and staff have a cult-like obsession with Julian, he their leader and they his dutiful followers. Unorthodox, sure. But it can be somewhat explained away. If you’re going to work – and live – on an island, with your job at Hawthorne being your entire life, there has to be an excessive obsession. But things start to take a turn when the food comes. In particular, the guests receive tortillas for tacos that are emblazoned with pictures. Personal pictures that no restaurant has business having access to.
It’s at this point the bigger ideas of The Menu start to come into fuller focus. Elitism, pretentiousness, expectations of perfection. The larger themes and messages at play are made very obvious. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But The Menu doesn’t really have anything to say. It thinks it does, but everything ends up being incredibly surface level. There’s nothing new or insightful presented here.
On top of that, as you see the staff’s obsession become deeper and more committed than originally thought, there’s no development there either. The things Slowik asks them to do, and their never-flinching agreement with these commands, don’t make sense. It makes everything that happens all the more confounding. How does this all get set up? How does this restaurant obtain these resources and use them like they do? Slowik’s mindset makes sense, but with the extremes he goes to, it just doesn’t flow together. And don’t even get me started on the ending…which I won’t, obviously. But it’s one of the most non-sensical endings I’ve seen in quite some time.
However, even with all that, there is still plenty of fun to be had here. The movie is presented in different “courses;” as the meal goes, so goes the movie’s story. This is a fun little way to structure the story. And each individual scene is mostly lots of fun. While the larger story never comes together for me, each new “course” offers a soft reset to the narrative, and I genuinely enjoyed each of these on their own.
The Menu is also unexpectedly quite funny. There were hints of this in the trailers, but it’s a full-on dark comedy, versus the thriller with some funny moments I went in expecting. This is where the skewering of the elite works best, because you’re able to laugh at them and their absurd lives and personalities. But even this ultimately falls short. The jokes are well-executed, but are all so obvious.
Fiennes is terrific throughout, and Taylor-Joy matches him every step of the way. The rest of the actors are serviceable or better, that’s not the issue. But there is no character development for anyone outside of Slowik and Margot (and even there it’s minimal). It makes it next to impossible to care about anybody else in any way that gets keeps you invested in the other characters.
The Menu didn’t reach the high hopes I had for it. But anchored by top-tier performances from Fiennes and Taylor-Joy, along with consistent, biting humor, it still manages to be one of the more fun movies to come out recently. If you’re just looking for a good time at the movies, and don’t need some deeply insightful commentary, The Menu should satisfy that appetite.
Score: 80/100
