A nice artistic horror film with a SAW type feel of bad people being punished for their bad actions. Beautiful cinematography, food dressing, and scenes in general. All things considered a fairly fresh take on the horror genre.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
We hit the ground running, meeting Margot and Tyler the (apparent) couple and (possibly) main characters for the film. Tyler is a little nasty freak for food and Margot is just trying to eat. Next is one short character introducing boat ride to the island featuring some real heavy hitters in the real world like Judith Light, John Leguizamo, Arturo Castro just to name a few (that I knew anyway). On the Island we meet Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik himself (Voldemort is here, with a nose and a pallet cooking us dinner, y’all, get pumped up).
THE MENU begins, which is a very select meal crafted by the chef and made by his staff but things are strange in the dining room. Guests are not appreciating the food (except Tyler who is a whole mess), guests are being rude to staff, but then the staff will kind of clap back at the guests which is great but also eerie. Guests are already grumbling at the chefs fancy and innovative menu that doesn’t include bread (because bread is for poor people and these people don’t deserve it, clever) so when the third course has the patrons private information laser printed on the tortillas everyone starts to get a bit cagey. Before the fourth course, Chef informs Margot he knows she isn’t supposed to be here and basically that he is sorry… and then The Mess.
The Mess is the fourth course, an almost ritualistic suicide of one of the “lesser” staff in the kitchen. The guests are horrified but the staff overwhelm them (giving one guy the finger!). Chef tells them all why they are here, deserving of their fates (some more than others) and we move on to Man’s Folly. The men of the group are allowed to attempt escape while the girls eat and talk shit, then the inevitably captured men come back for the next course (but the last boy found got a snack!). Tyler is bugging because he missed what the girls ate, but that's fine because Chef reveals that Ty-ty knew for 8 months that this was a death trap, but he wanted to eat there so bad, he came AND brought a date! What a schmuck!
Chef has Tyler cook, because he will not shut up about being good in the kitchen. Homeboy puts leeks, shallots, and lamb in a pan together with like four tablespoons of butter while flop sweating then feeds it to Chef after letting it cook for about 30 seconds. Chef spits it out then whispers in Tyler's ear and I can almost guarantee he just told the dumb fecker that he wasn’t going to be getting any more food for the evening because the boy promptly shows himself to a back room to hang out. Margot is unphased the man who was happy to let her die for a meal killed himself over a meal.
Margot is given an errand, briefly escapes, “accidently” kills a staff member, calls the “coast guard”, thinks she gets help, doesn’t get help, and has to sit right back down where she started.
In a final attempt to save herself, Margot stands, claps (like Chef), and basically demands better service, says she hasn’t liked the food and is starving. She just wants something simple and filling and I blurted out with her, “HAMBURGER,” but of course she said “Cheeseburger.” (But that is what I mean when I say Hamburger, because of course there is cheese on it! Gah!) It is nice to see such an art heavy film in the mainstream in 2022 (yes, the culinary arts count as art).
If you think our heroine wins the day because she asks for a simple, non-artistic food you would be wrong, it is because the food she asks for at the end is made by Chef Slowik and not by his staff (also being a burger man was in another life when he was happy which helped a lot too but I DIGRESS). That made all the difference. He got to experience the joy of cooking he hadn’t felt in ages, the joy of making art for someone and making them happy. That is what saved her life, so that she could live another day and eat her leftover burger. And when it comes down to it, isn’t that what we all want? To live another day so that we may eat our leftover burger?
