The Menu: A Tasty Treat or a Half-Baked Disaster? Industry Insider Film Review
by Jensen Cummings
Read time: 8 minutes
INDUSTRY INSIDER RATING: 5.6 / 10 🍿
The Menu is a 2022 American black comedy horror film that takes a satirical look at high-end restaurant and foodie culture. Directed by Mark Mylod, written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and starring Ralph Fiennes and Anna Joy-Taylor, the film follows a group of elite foodies who are invited to a remote island for a five-hour, multi-course meal. As the night unfolds, the diners begin to realize that the restaurant crew may have more on the menu than just food.
*Trigger Warning: Please be advised that this article contains themes of sexual violence, suicide, and murder. If you are sensitive to these topics, we suggest reading with caution. If you or someone you know is in need of support, please reach out to a mental health professional or a help-line.
As a long-time cook and Chef myself, the portrayal of the kitchen dynamics in the film were all too familiar. The "Clap! Yes Chef!" moments were jarring and the dominance and tyranny of the Chef are all too common in high-pressure kitchen environments. It is a dangerous and toxic culture that we now know can lead to a wide range of issues, including mental health problems and physical abuse.
The movie’s portrayal of this culture, in which the restaurant crew is willing to obey the Chef to the point of killing themselves or murdering others, made my skin crawl and brought back some of my own traumatic experiences.
A brief glimpse into the occurrence of sexual abuse that many face just by showing up to work, was uncomfortable and embarrassing, in its truth and what felt like a glazing over.
The Menu nailed its portrayal of many of the high-end restaurant tropes that permeate the lives of those who have lived them, with intense emotion and dark wit. Was that enough to make this a great movie?
The film starts off strong, with a great ensemble cast led by Ralph Fiennes as the maniacal chef. I always appreciate Fiennes as a psychopath, and in this way, he does not disappoint. The film's creators, Will Tracy and Seth Reiss, come from The Onion and Seth Myers show. This is evident in the film's comedic elements, which often felt like an SNL sketch or a College Humor skit.
The film's humor is hit and miss, with some scenes being genuinely funny, others deeply disturbing, while most just fall flat, feeling like contrived and forced attempts to validate this story being a feature length motion picture.
The Menu’s depiction of the 1% angle for restaurants or any service sector, makes sense to me. Restaurant pros want to dispatch their elitist “foodie” guests, who do not actually give a shit about the painstaking work to deliver their experience, I get that. They accomplished that in a handful of minutes across multiple scenes. However, the film then tries to jam this theme down our throats again and again over an hour of useless dribble to prove that the diners were awful people, while still not actually developing the characters.
In the second half of the movie, I kept trying to rationalize that each inferior scene and coursed-out dish accompanied by it’s awkward monologue descriptions, was just the calm before the storm. The storm never hit, and I was just left wanting and famished.
Yes, the film had a few other worthwhile moments, but they are few and far between. The Uber foodie getting invited into the kitchen to cook with the crew, because he must clearly be one of them, only to be humiliated by how little knowledge and skill they actually have was very on point. Tricking the Chef into cook a simple cheeseburger as a way to take him back to memories of his joy for cooking gave me the feels. And like most of you, I craved a cheeseburger after the credits rolled. Dominique Crenn's culinary direction was gorgeous, and we all know Mark Mylod can capture stunning food shots from his work on Chef's Table.
In the end though, I did not care enough about the characters, or the drama or the comedy or the horror to rate this film highly. I was left feeling like this was another opportunity missed for Hollywood to represent the depth of the heroes, villains and culture we want (and need) to see on screen within this restaurant and food world, we all love, and hate, so deeply.
*Now, I would say that The Menu is worth the watch if you already have an HBO Max subscription, but not if you're paying $14 for it.
Jensen Cummings is a fifth-generation award-winning Chef, Public Speaker and Restaurant Industry Strategist based in Denver, CO. He is the host of Best Served Podcast and Restaurant Idea Factory.
He is committed to reflecting on his own culpability in the status quo of the industry, to reimagining restaurant culture, investing in our unsung hospitality heroes and building a better mode, what he calls a Workplace Worth Working.
He began his career at 17 years old as a dishwasher. He spent the last twenty-plus years working across the industry from cook to server to bartender, Cicerone, Fermentationist, General Manager, Owner, Consultant, Podcast host, even kitchen burnout.
