One of my favorite films of 2022, ‘The Menu’ is everything I did and didn’t expect. Starring Anya Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and Ralph Fiennes, it tells the story of an extremely accomplished Chef Julian Slowik who lures eleven guests to his private island, Hawthorn, for a dinner at his critically acclaimed restaurant they will never forget.
Set to beautiful and haunting music, the film is one that plays to the wealth and luxury both clientele and Chef know very well. Led by manager and right-hand woman Elsa, the audience and the guests are treated to beautiful scenes of the island that is home to Chef and his staff. Throughout the film, Slowik takes the time to tell the story and the name of each dish carefully laid out and prepared by a diligent and maniacal staff. The film displays each dish on the screen, complete with the description you’d find on a fine dining menu, inviting us to enjoy the meal along with the customers and experience the service that accompanies it.
As a lover of luxury, the opulence of the aesthetic pulled me in instantly. In fact, I was enjoying it so much that I almost missed the whole point of the film. When the plot twist was revealed I found myself confused and disheartened; Slowik didn’t invite these guests to enjoy an evening dinner, he invited them to kill them.
“The Mess”
What we soon realize is that despite Slowik’s many accomplishments, he no longer enjoys his craft. Even the environment of the kitchen and its staff are representative of that. Bound by strict schedules that barely allow 5 hours of sleep, the kitchen staff operate almost like soldiers on a military base. They synonymously reply “yes Chef!” when given orders and cook in an eerily calm and stringent way that makes it clear how laughably serious they take themselves. Elsa possesses a dry and even more murderous persona as the film moves on.
His staff prove themselves to be just as diligent and perfection oriented as their boss. Not only do they worship their craft, but they worship him. They strive to please him and honor him by perfecting every dish and task. They will do anything and give up anything to be him. But despite climbing the ranks of the fine dining industry and working under the most revered Chef of all time, they are still terrified of never being good enough.
Here, the madness of perfection is brought to life in the most literal way possible, the suicide of a staff member, implying Slowiks own suicidal thoughts. Beyond that, Chef Slowik is angry. He blames his unhappiness on his patrons who have participated in creating a culture that values the prestige of his work more than the art he diligently believes he’s creating. He’s angry at having to slave away to please people who have no understanding or appreciation of his craft and instead use it as a way to prop themselves and their own egos up. He feels trapped by the expectations of excellence and by those who use their money to encroach on the power he has over his own work and professional integrity. This is probably why one of the first people to die is his investor, Doug Verrick.
The people he selects are all in some way representative of that:
Tyler Ledford is an enormous fan of Slowik’s, posing as an expert in the art of fine dining cuisine but is really a fraud.
Ted and Lillian are egotistical food critics whose awful reviews have led to the closure of many perfectly decent restaurants and uphold a culture of expensive and soul sucking fine dining.
George Diaz is an asshole of a celebrity actor with little to no skill, talent, or respect for his art.
Felicity is Diaz’s assistant who is just as awful as she follows behind him, nagging him into doing his job right with annoying banter. We later find that she’s been stealing money from Diaz despite coming from a perfectly wealthy background.
Richard and Anne are an elderly couple who have no regard for Slowik’s food but still attend his restaurant to maintain their air of prestige and class
Finally,
Soren, Bryce and Dave are finance bros who work for the patron of Slowik but are hiding financial criminal activity.
Each and every guest invited by Slowik exemplifies the insatiable appetite and vain shallowness that their wealth and power allows them to confidently pose. They are, in Slowik’s words, ‘takers’, who have no qualms about feeding off of those they deem lesser than. That is why they are on the menu and that is why they must die.
As this begins to dawn on the guests, they begin to panic and make futile attempts to escape. In fact one of the meals Slowik presents allows the men of the group to abandon the women to run for their lives which they all fail to do miserably. I was confused about this until the Chef made a point; they really didn’t try very hard to escape. The reason why is explained during a course called “Memory.” The guests are treated to picturesque tortillas, with their secrets, crimes, and failures imprinted on them. Another complementary trap set up by Slowik suggests a simple thing: stay and die or leave and be exposed.
They know that escape means having to answer to the world about what they’ve done should Slowik and his team decide to talk and they would literally rather die than have the world see them for who they truly are.
The exception to this rule is Margot.
Margot is a sex worker, invited by Tyler. Thrown off by Margot (as she is not on the Menu and isn’t reacting to Slowik’s courses like the rest of the guests) Slowik takes her aside and talks to her. When he discovers that she’s a service worker he makes her choose; you’re with the takers or you’re with the givers.
Upon choosing the side of the workers, she’s sent to run an errand for him and finds herself in Chef's cottage, which has been declared off-limits to everyone except him. There, she finds Slowik was a man of humble beginnings, discovering his passion for cooking as a teenager working at a local burger restaurant. The story of his life and ascension through the food industry is told in pictures with each one resembling the man we’re currently contending with.
“You want to know what I would like?... A cheeseburger”
Despite Margot’s choice, she, like everyone else in the restaurant, is still condemned to death. As the final meal is being assembled and everyone having accepted their fate, we witness the most breathtaking scene in the film. Instead of falling in line, like everyone else, Margot stands and claps catching the attention of the Chef and his staff.
With a stroke of boldness I haven’t seen in a film in a long time, she declares her dissatisfaction with her experience at his restaurant and, despite the many courses served at the restaurant, her ravenous hunger. Despite Slowik’s anger, he is still a Chef. A perfectionist who strives for excellence in his work. So he asks her what she would like to eat and Margot replies, a cheeseburger.
Part 1
Part 2
Watching Slowik prepare such a simple meal is a sigh of relief after a tense confrontation. For the first time in the film, we see him smile. He serves the meal himself and watches her take a bite. The look of satisfaction on a happy customer is the bow of the gift Margot gave him; his love of his craft. In return, he gives Margot what he denies himself and everyone else; her life.
“We Love you Chef!!!!!”
I choose to believe that Slowik chose to finish off this slow murder suicide by fire for a reason. In many cultures and religions fire is a symbol of divinity, religious zeal, and martyrdom.
In the Menu, Chef Slowik is the god of the film. Worshiped by those who work for him and admire him and orchestrating the ultimate punishment for those who have defiled and betrayed him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought of himself as a martyr, doing what no one else could do by destroying those society had deemed untouchable.
Fire is also a symbol of rebirth, purification, and illumination. For a man who felt corrupted and dirtied by those who he served, fire would be the perfect way to start anew.
As I sat and watched Margot witness fire blow up Hawthorne, I realized that if I was involved with Slowik in some way I also probably would’ve been on the Menu. Throughout the film I found myself siding with the guests, completely enthralled by the status they exemplified. I found myself drawn to Lillian and Tyler who both displayed a sense of intellect, knowledge, and appreciation for the art of food only for them to be using it to indulge their egos. Even though I was horrified by the way cooks and Chef had gone crazy looking for perfection, I recognize now that was what I had been willing to do at one point. Getting the perfect grades defined me, but even when I got them, I still felt empty.
The Menu is a beautiful film that lulls you into choosing a side and then holds up a mirror, forcing you to see the side you chose and why you chose it. In doing so, it emphasizes a familiar lesson: wealth and status can just as easily be an indicator of unhappiness and corruption as they can success and ethics.
The guests in some way obtained and maintained their place in the upper echelons of society through dark means. Lillian Bloom was willing to destroy careers to maintain hers. Felicity was willing to steal from her wealthy boss to maintain the wealth she already had. Tyler, a rich boy with no real talent or skill, was willing to use Slowik to disguise himself as anything but. When he managed to reach the point of career success we’re told to strive for, Slowik, despite all his accolades, was left with nothing meaningful to show for it. Not even his love for his job. In the end, it wasn’t the delicious meals we’re being told to enjoy, it was the characters.
How’s that for eat the rich?
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