The Menu: Everything is amazing

Movie Review: The Menu (2022) on HBO Max

To say it's suspenseful is to downplay it. To say it's a thriller is to come up short. To say it shocks is to give it short shrift. The Menu is many things, but as a film it is a mind-blowing mystery that never fails to surprise and keep you wondering what could possibly happen next. 

Cast, timing, and the element of surprise is what make this film work.

Ralph Fiennes is Chef. He is ego personified, chief among all those of the guests invited to marvel at his exclusive restaurant on an island far removed from the drudgery of civilization. Anya Taylor-Joy is Margot, seemingly the alter-ego, the least polished of the posh guests on the list. She is companion to Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who is most eager of the guests to be impressed and most eager to impress Chef. John Leguizamo is a movie star most eager to make appearances. And so the list goes on of the rich and pompous for whom Chef has prepared a multi-course lavish meal for which he is famous. 

Timing is everything. As Chef prepares each course for serving, he chaps his hands and the cook/servers yell, "Chef!" and guests come to attention. As a viewer, you come to attention, too. And like an illusionist about to perform the next extreme feat of magic, you prepare to be surprised. First, by the elegant culinary delivery. Then by the...

...the excellent element of surprise. After a bit of discourse on the meal, or the food, or some bit of history, Chef slaps you to attention with a dramatic twist.

Some of it is shocking. And you wonder--what in the hell! How did he do that? Is this real? Some of it is genius. All of it just leads you into the next course, wondering but not ready for the next slap. And then it comes.

The Menu is an odd title. This isn't about the menu. It's about The Delivery, the Final Delivery. Don't dare bow out early. Stay to the end. You really must. You won't believe it.

And so, I rate The Menu an A+ for Amazing. The food looks amazing, the presentation is amazing, the casting is amazing--everything is wonderful. If it just weren't so shocking! No, that was amazing, too, in retrospect.