3 stars out of 5
I’m loyal. I watch a lot of Seth Meyers, and one of his writers co-wrote The Menu. So I dutifully watched the trailer, which seemed darkly funny. Plus Anya Taylor-Joy-’sGot-Nuts-Mounds-Don’t was in it, and I’m a fan (despite not being impressed with Anya in her pre-Gambit gambit Thoroughbreds). All good enough for me.
And that’s what this movie ends up being: Good enough. The 2-minute trailer shows you that it will be a dark comedy/thriller skewering upper-class society (haven’t seen Triangle of Sadness but I think that treads similar waters?) while also poking the cult of personality around celebrity chefs. But the movie is 105 minutes longer than the trailer without delivering too much more.
Margot (Taylor-Joy), who represents us and the writers because we are down-to-earth and not like these stupid rich people, is on a date with Tyler (Nicholas Hoult, who was the boy in About a Boy; yes you is OLD deal with it!!!) who is a rich prick. Why are these two even together? Maybe it’ll be explained later in the movie! All you need to know now is they have reservations at an ultra-exclusive restaurant run by superchef Ralph Fiennes. It is also super-remote so don’t even think of summoning an Uber if you want to amscray in a hurry, ah but all that comes later too! Other diners include Judith Light (!) as a, you know, rich person, a tired-looking John Leguizamo playing a past-his-prime actor (too on-the-nose?), and mean Helen from Ozark. I did enjoy seeing Peter Grosz (Mike Pence on The President Show) as the sommelier.
And then things get cray-cray. I did kind of enjoy the movie — it’s clever, there are many laughs, and it does get pretty dark if you like that sort of thing (which I do). But, as with a too-small portion in a pricey restaurant, I was really hoping for greater fulfillment.
Jack Silbert, curator