I saw The Menu by accident.
I actually meant to see Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
I arrived at the multiplex, 15 minutes late and, hoping the trailers were still playing and raced into the wrong theater.
I saw opening credits playing over a scene where several celebrities, all cast as evil rich people, arrive by boat to a fancy island.
I didn't think anything was amiss, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, also opens with a scene where several celebrities, all cast as evil rich people, arrive by boat to a fancy island.
I remember thinking "I didn't know Nicholas Hoult and John Leguizamo are in this!" and "Where's Daniel Craig?"
When Ralph Fiennes appeared as a chef I, thought "Oh, that's weird, he’s playing the chef in this too? Isn’t he also the chef in..... sigh."
But by that point, I was more than 20 minutes into the movie.
I was trapped.
Trapped is a good way to watch the Menu, which is all about being trapped.
The Plot: Erin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is an escort whose current assignment is being plus-one to a wealthy young man named Tyler (Nicholas Hoult).
Tyler is taking Erin to dinner at Hawthorne’s, an exclusive restaurant on a private island that serves dinner once a year to invite-only clientele.
Tyler talks obsessively about Hawthorne's chef, Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) insisting the man is a gastronomical genius.
Erin isn’t very interested, but Tyler keeps talking. It’s possible he only brought a date so it wouldn’t look like he is talking to himself.
When the young couple reach Hawthorne’s, they are seated with a group of high society guests which include a restaurant critic (Janet McTeer), a movie star (John Leguizamo), two elderly socialites (Judith Light and Reed Birney) and three sketchy tech bros (Arturo Castro, Rob Yang and Mark St. Cyr).
Chef Julian makes a grand entrance and introduces his menu, but none of the guests (except Tyler) feel it’s worth their attention.
That changes when Chef Julian starts berating sous chef, Jeremy (Adam Aalderks) for being a failure and orders him to take his own life, which he does, right there.
This disturbs some of the dinner guests, but others are certain the death was staged. After all, if it wasn’t, why would the waiters now be serving the first course as though nothing happened.
That first course is soft tacos. Each tortilla is monogrammed with personal information about each dinner guest, much of it incriminating.
Now that disturbs everyone, and performance or not, they demand an explanation.
Imposing maître d’, Elsa (Hong Chau) takes that moment to inform the guests they’ll all receive “less than they want and more than they deserve.”
When the Menu was released, almost three years ago, it was very timely.
Not so much for what the commentary on why wealthy people spend their money. That had been done much better in Parasite, Greed and Triangle of Sadness.
What the Menu really nailed was the bizarre tendency for humans to make their careers, however ephemeral, into perfectionist cliques that resemble military service.
Autumn 2022 was the tail end of a two-and-a-half-year period where many people, but especially those in the food and beverage industry, had been unable to work. During that time they were forced to reflect and meditate on much, but particularly on the jobs they had devoted time and energy to and the value those jobs provided to others and themselves.
Results of that reflection varied drastically. The Menu is about people for whom the outcome was not positive.
It seems ridiculous, but there are actually a lot of people who can only get through full time work by making something spiritual out of it. By viewing their boss as someone infallible who must obeyed, no matter what they ask. And there are bosses who actually believe they are infallible. Ralph Fiennes nails his performance as this sort of boss
There is a moment in this film when Chef Julian tells someone they are going to be murdered in a horrible way, but that they might have the “opportunity” to die with his respect.
Fiennes, delivers that line as though he really believes his respect will make the horrible death better. The actors playing his staff clearly believe it too.
I think The Menu was a hit because it demonstrates how easy it is to wind up in a cult even when there is no religion involved.
Recently, a friend of mine who can’t do scary films, asked if the Menu is a horror movie.
I initially said no, because I thought of it more as a satire or a drama.
That friend went on to ask if there was any cannibalism in the movie and I actually had to stop and think.
It then occurred to me that if a film has so much violence and gore that you don’t automatically remember if cannibalism was involved, it probably is going to be a horror movie to a lot of people.
But whether or not the Menu works for you, as something funny, tragic or scary will depend on whether you believe the characters. I didn’t always believe the guests could or would make the choices they did. But I never doubted the staff, not even as it became clear that Hawthorne’s might become the Jonestown of restaurants.
Eventually, I did make it to a screening of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and was surprised at how similar it was to the Menu.
As I mentioned earlier, both films begin with evil rich people on an island but the similarities don't stop there. Both films involve playing a complex, dangerous game. Both films end with an explosive firestorm.
And thematically, both films are about angry confrontations with inequality, injustice, materialism, narcissism and elevating a reputation or ‘brand’ above human life.
Glass Onion leaves you with the impression that justice can win out and even the most deeply corrupt can come to their senses.
The Menu leaves you with the impression that this incredibly messed up world might be even worse than you think and that every job you work inflicts some kind of permanent trauma.
Even that part time job making cheeseburgers you had many decades ago.
The Tea: A cup of boiled water.
The Snack: A cheeseburger, followed by s'mores.
I don't think Chef's cheeseburger job inflicted trauma. Rather, it is portrayed as the last time he was happy. His trauma begins when he becomes more "successful" and starts running his own restaurant. To do this he made a deal with the devil, in this case represented by a capitalist.
He followed the advice commonly peddled by modern hustle culture, which is to turn your passion into your profession. Instead of this becoming a meaningful career following his passion, it reduced his art to a commodity, devoid of love. The restaurant's owner uses his access to capital to control Chef's passion, demanding menu changes, etc. The happy, burger flipping teen grows up to be a sullen, bitter monster because he followed the path laid out for him by a system that cares only about profit.