This past Sunday, I went to see The Menu in theaters. I had a Regal gift card and figured why not!

I don’t like to watch trailers before I see a movie– I find that they often spoil the entire plot, including the ending. I prefer to go in completely blind. 

I knew from the rumblings around me that it was a movie centered around that specific brand of high intensity, Michelin-starred, french traditional cooking made popular by shows like Chef’s Table and The Bear. I knew it starred Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy and that there was an unexpected horror element.

The Menu is a dark comedy. The bare bones of the plot go like this: A group of wealthy elites travel to a restaurant on a private island to participate in an exclusive tasting menu. Once there, they are subjected to a (hilariously realistic) parody of Michelin star dining and the self-obsessed ramblings of Chef Slowik (portrayed by Ralph Fiennes). As each course is introduced, the menu becomes progressively more violent and extreme, culminating in the patrons, dressed as human s’mores, being set ablaze inside the restaurant.

The action plot of this movie is stellar- it is compelling and silly and at moments, genuinely suspenseful. As a whole, The Menu is just a good, fun time at the movie theater. 

It follows a traditional horror movie structure: outsiders are brought to a strange foreign land, they are each punished for their sins by a maniacal, god-like figure and yet amazingly, one Final Girl escapes his clutches and survives.

The horror aspect of the film is underscored, quite literally, by the soundtrack– which consists of tense woodwinds and theatrical bass. The score was done by Colin Stetson, a Canadian musician who is known for his work on Ari Aster’s Hereditary. I went to see The Menu with my good friend Willow and she picked up on this similarity right away! I feel that having an atmosphere that is immediately identifiable with the modern horror genre allowed the writers a little more freedom to be goofy. 

The writers, Will Tracy and Seth Reiss both worked at The Onion for a time– then Tracy began to write on HBO’s Succession and Reiss wrote for Late Night With Seth Meyers. Their background in comedy is clearly evident in the script– there are plenty of laugh-out-loud one liners and outrageous set ups that are played with an incredible amount of sincerity by the cast.

The narrative backstories for each of the guests– and their subsequent reasons for deserving to die are wonderfully written.

You have a couple of regulars– who have dined at the $1250 a plate restaurant eleven times yet can not remember a single dish, a trio of entitled finance bros, an overly pedantic food critic accompanied by her pussy-whipped, yes man assistant and finally, my favorite, a washed-up actor who’s sole reason for damnation was starring in a mildly annoying movie.

This role was played by John Leguiziamo incredibly. He hammered home some of the funniest moments in the film. Interestingly enough, In an earlier draft of the script, this role was to be played by Daniel Radcliffe.

In that version, Radcliffe would star as a fictional version of himself and the film, which annoyed Chef Slowik so badly that he thought the lead actor deserved to die, wouldn’t be the fictional “Dr. Sunshine”, but rather the very real (and very bad) 2015 film Victor Frankenstein (in which Radcliffe starred).

There were a couple other differences in the early version that didn’t quite make it to theaters– namely Margot (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) was originally going to be played by Emma Stone.

I can definitely imagine Stone in the role– she fits that same wide-eyed, sarcastic-heroine niche that Taylor-Joy fills. But ultimately, Anya Taylor-Joy was the right choice. She delivers a stunning performance– and her name power is honestly what drove me to the theater! I am a huge ‘The VVitch’ fan, so I will watch anything Thomasin is in. 

Taylor-Joy’s performance is captivating and natural– but I will be honest, her major plot points are not fully developed. They struggle to make sense in the larger story and are at times cringe-inducing.

It would be fair to say that while the action plot of the film is strong and entertaining, the emotional plot struggled to connect authentically.

The question Chef Slowik proposes to Margot: “Us or Them”, while poignant to the references of Class in the film, struggles to make sense in the narrative. Why on earth would the Chef be asking Margot if she is one of them? She has so far made no reference to cooking or working in a restaurant or even enjoying anything like this- actually quite the opposite! The whole conversation, which prompts this question, is built on the tension of her not eating Chef’s food.

They quite honestly could have left 90% of the scenes between Chef and Margot on the cutting room floor and it would’ve made better sense in the story.

There are some other moments– like her sending the cheeseburger back at the end of the film that are just plain cringe-inducing. There is no food in front of her or any of the other patrons, so it doesn’t really make sense. It’s pretty random timing.

There are some cool references to real-life chefs in The Menu.

The architecture of Hawthorn is built after famous high-end restaurants– namely the now-closed Swedish restaurant, Fäviken.

A backlit spice rack inspired by El Bulli and a chef’s garden á la The French Laundry can also be seen in the main kitchen.

The final, Midsommar-esque scene, wherein the guests are ceremonially enrobed in s'mores ingredients and set ablaze, references Grant Achatz’s splatter tables at Alinea.

The “perfectly unripe” strawberry is from Chef René Redzepi of Noma and the housemade granola in gift bags are a nod to Eleven Madison Park.

Three Michelin Star Chef Dominique Crenn and her executive pastry chef Juan Contreras made all nine of the dishes involved in Chef Slowik’s menu (obviously excluding the gunshot suicide and scissor-stab courses).

They did not use any prop food in the film. All of the dishes that were served were cooked on camera. Aspects of the menu (like the chicken with the scissors stuck into it) were a part of the script from the beginning. However, the other dishes (like the amuse-bouche on the boat and the craggy rock with the scallop on it) were designed by Crenn. It was the first time, while watching a movie like this, that I thought that the food looked genuinely delectable.

This is due, in part, to the way the food was shot. David Gelb– famous for his work on Chef’s Table and Jiro Dreams of Sushi– stepped on as second unit director. (Chef’s Table fans may have noticed how eerily familiar the title cards felt for each of the dishes).

In sum, The Menu was a fun, spooky romp about the perils of working in the service industry. I would highly recommend seeing it in theaters (even though I, like a trailer, just spoiled it all). Take your line cook friends and watch them revel in the joy of Chef Slowik screaming out to the heavens: NO SUBSTITUTIONS!!!!