Sunday, March 5, 2023

The Menu (2022)

This stylish thriller about an exclusive gourmet dinner turns violent in the second half but Jack and I found it quite entertaining and very funny at times. Some of the ensemble's stars are Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Fiennes, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, and John Leguizamo.

Mark Mylod directs from a clever script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and the stunning cinematography is thanks to Peter Deming. I recommend you read the imdb trivia after watching because of spoilers –– it's fascinating. Suffice it to say many chefs and restaurants inspired the story.

Colin Stetson's soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music.

Taylor-Joy was last blogged for Amsterdam, Hoult for X-Men: First Class plus a mention in The Current War, Fiennes in A Bigger Splash, Chau for The Whale, McTeer for Hannah Arendt, and Leguizamo for voicing Bruno in Encanto. Mylod has directed TV episodes such as Succession and Shameless, as well as three other features. Reiss was writing supervisor on Late Night with Seth Meyers and head writer on The Onion TV series, among his credits, and Tracy has written for The Onion, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and two episodes of Succession. This is the first feature for both screenwriters. Stetson is new to me, though not to the biz. I've seen quite a lot of Deming's work and some of my favorites are Hollywood Shuffle (1987), My Cousin Vinny (1992), Music of the Heart (1999), Mulholland Drive (2001), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Oz the Great and Powerful. He started at my film school the year before I did.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics have a taste for this with an average of 88% while its audiences need more spice at 76.

This will be number 32 in my list of food movies.

We watched it on February 28 with our subscription to HBO.

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