‘The Menu’: Toronto Review

Dir: Mark Mylod. US. 2022.107 mins.

It’s not just a restaurant. Situated on its own island in the Pacific northwest, Hawthorn is an experience. The select group of diners are, they are told, “ingredients in a degustation concept”. On no account, stresses Chef (Ralph Fiennes), should they eat. Instead they should taste…relish…savour each eye-wateringly expensive mouthful. Among the diners are foodie fanboy Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his last-minute date for the evening Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). Tyler has a convert’s fervour and his own Pacojet Plus machine. He eats up (or rather tastes, relishes, savours) the Chef’s every word. Margot, alone among the diners, feels that something tastes a little off about the whole experience. The rarefied world of haute cuisine is not exactly a hard target to satirise, but this deliciously savage comedy from director Mark Mylod makes every bitter mouthful count. Subtle it’s not, but any film which toys so maliciously with the kind of people who unironically use the term “mouth-feel” has much to recommend it.

A bracingly spiteful and very funny picture

Mylod has extensive experience as a comedy director, mainly for television. Previous work includes episodes of Entourage, Game Of Thrones and most recently, Succession: the theme of the vileness of the ultra-wealthy and powerful is one which has clearly fascinated him throughout his career. The Menu is a caviar-black comedy with just a hint of gore and horror; it should connect with a similar audience to equally dark comedic offerings like Armando Ianucci’s The Death Of Stalin. Disney’s Searchlight plans a global release from November 2022.

A mismatched selection of punters joins Tyler and Margot for this exclusive dining event. All are wealthy, and all seem as much interested in the prestige of the restaurant as they are in the actual food. One one table, a trio of city bros revel in their own reprehensible awfulness. On another sit restaurant critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer) and her obsequious magazine editor Ted (Paul Adelstein). She describes a starter, a rock covered in bits of seaweed as “Thalassic”, he fawningly agrees. Then there’s a washed up movie star (John Leguizamo), and his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero), who is trying to hand in her notice. In a corner, an oblivious elderly woman methodically works her way through several thousand dollars worth of biodynamic wines. And finally, there are the regulars: Anne and Richard (Judith Light and Reed Birney) have visited Hawthorn on eleven equally thin-lipped and joyless occasions. Richard and Margot have met before, a fact that neither are keen to publicise.

The guardian of the space between kitchen and the restaurant floor is the front of house manager Elsa (Hong Chau): part aesthete, part dominatrix. “You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve,” she whispers into the ear of the banker who queries whether his breadless bread plate could, in fact, include some bread after all.

To reveal what is on the menu, apart from the passive aggressive laser-printed tacos and a great deal of pain and humiliation, would be to spoil the appetite for this bracingly spiteful and very funny picture. Suffice to say, although revenge is a dish best served cold, sometimes you need to just flambé the whole lot – the foams, the snows, the foraged sea vegetables, the idea of food as status rather than sustenance – and opt for a cheeseburger instead.