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• 90 Screen Daily Wendy Ide Screen Daily Wendy Ide 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.
• 90 IGN Rafael Motamayor IGN Rafael Motamayor The Menu is a hilariously wicked thriller about the world of high-end restaurants, featuring a stellar cast led by a phenomenal Ralph Fiennes, some of the most gorgeous food shots in recent film history, and accompanied by a delicious hors d'oeuvres sampling of commentary on the service industry, class warfare, and consumerism.
• 80 The Hollywood Reporter Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter Lovia Gyarkye This is a vengeful dark comedy that probes percolating class anxieties (a popular theme in cinema lately). It indulges in opportunities to strip the emperor of his clothes, and while that doesn’t necessarily translate to the most revelatory social commentary, it does make for an amusing ride.
• 80 Vanity Fair Vanity Fair The Menu lands its joke about the Chef Table-ification of cuisine while also finding nuance in its “capitalism is a plague” messaging.
• 75 IndieWire Christian Blauvelt IndieWire Christian Blauvelt The Menu does do one thing exceptionally well: it holds your attention and makes you think for a time that any outcome is possible. That alone is something to salivate over.
• 70 Slashfilm Chris Evangelista Slashfilm Chris Evangelista The set-up is sound, and the film is gloriously twisted. But The Menu also lags — once we're clued into what's happening, some of the fun is gone.
• 70 Screen Rant Mae Abdulbaki Screen Rant Mae Abdulbaki Audiences may not have much of an appetite after watching the film, but the experience, like Slowik’s promise to his own guests, will be one they won’t soon forget.
• 60 The Guardian Benjamin Lee The Guardian Benjamin Lee The Menu might not nail some of the more substantial courses but it’ll do as a light snack.
• 58 The Playlist Charles Bramesco The Playlist Charles Bramesco Everything on the menu of The Menu looks good enough, but once its moldy tirade against the one percent has been fully dished out, it’s plain to see there’s not a whole lot of meat on the bone here.
• 50 Collider Chase Hutchinson Collider Chase Hutchinson For all the promise of its main cast and sturdy thriller premise, The Menu is a work that seems destined to slip from your mind.
• See all 45 reviews on Metacritic.com
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The obscenely wealthy are having a tough time at the movies lately. Last month, Ruben Östlund stuck a bunch of them on a luxury yacht and watched them projectile vomit all over each other in “ Triangle of Sadness .” Next week, Rian Johnson will stick a bunch of them on a private Greek island to watch them wonder who among them is a killer in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

But this week, members of the extreme 1% just get stuck—as in skewered, and grilled—in “The Menu.” Director Mark Mylod satirizes a very specific kind of elitism here with his wildly over-the-top depiction of the gourmet food world. This is a place where macho tech bros, snobby culture journalists, washed-up celebrities, and self-professed foodies are all deluded enough to believe they’re as knowledgeable as the master chef himself. Watching them preen and try to one-up each other provides much of the enjoyment in the sharp script from Seth Reiss and Will Tracy .

But the build-up to what’s happening at this insanely expensive restaurant on the secluded island of Hawthorne is more intriguing than the actual payoff. The performances remain prickly, the banter deliciously snappy. And “The Menu” is always exquisite from a technical perspective. But you may find yourself feeling a bit hungry after this meal is over.

An eclectic mix of people boards a ferry for the quick trip to their storied destination. Chef Slowik’s fine-tuned, multi-course dinners are legendary—and exorbitant, at $1,250 a person. “What, are we eating a Rolex?” the less-than-impressed Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) quips to her date, Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ), as they’re waiting for the boat to arrive. He considers himself a culinary connoisseur and has been dreaming of this evening for ages; she’s a cynic who’s along for the ride. They’re gorgeous and look great together, but there’s more to this relationship than initially meets the eye. Both actors have a keen knack for this kind of rat-a-tat banter, with Hoult being particularly adept at playing the arrogant fool, as we’ve seen on Hulu’s “The Great.” And the always brilliant Taylor-Joy, as our conduit, brings a frisky mix of skepticism and sex appeal.

Also on board are a once-popular actor ( John Leguizamo ) and his beleaguered assistant ( Aimee Carrero ); three obnoxious, entitled tech dudes ( Rob Yang , Arturo Castro , and Mark St . Cyr); a wealthy older man and his wife ( Reed Birney and Judith Light ); and a prestigious food critic ( Janet McTeer ) with her obsequious editor ( Paul Adelstein ). But regardless of their status, they all pay deference to the star of the night: the man whose artful and inspired creations brought them there. Ralph Fiennes plays Chef Slowik with a disarming combination of Zen-like calm and obsessive control. He begins each course with a thunderous clap of his hands, which Mylod heightens skillfully to put us on edge, and his loyal cooks behind him respond in unison to his every demand with a spirited “Yes, Chef!” as if he were their drill sergeant. And the increasingly amusing on-screen descriptions of the dishes provide amusing commentary on how the night is evolving as a whole.

Of these characters, Birney and Light’s are the least developed. It’s particularly frustrating to have a performer of the caliber of Light and watch her languish with woefully little to do. She is literally “the wife.” There is nothing to her beyond her instinct to stand by her man dutifully, regardless of the evening’s disturbing revelations. Conversely, Hong Chau is the film’s MVP as Chef Slowik’s right-hand woman, Elsa. She briskly and efficiently provides the guests with a tour of how the island operates before sauntering among their tables, seeing to their every need and quietly judging them. She says things like: “Feel free to observe our cooks as they innovate” with total authority and zero irony, adding greatly to the restaurant’s rarefied air.

The personalized treatment each guest receives at first seems thoughtful, and like the kind of pampering these people would expect when they pay such a high price. But in time, the specifically tailored dishes take on an intrusive, sinister, and violent tone, which is clever to the viewer but terrifying to the diner. The service remains rigid and precise, even as the mood gets messy. And yet—as in the other recent movies indicting the ultra-rich—“The Menu” ultimately isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know. It becomes heavy-handed and obvious in its messaging. Mind-boggling wealth corrupts people. You don’t say.

But “The Menu” remains consistently dazzling as a feast for the eyes and ears. The dreamy cinematography from Peter Deming makes this private island look impossibly idyllic. The sleek, chic production design from Ethan Tobman immediately sets the mood of understated luxury, and Mylod explores the space in inventive ways, with overhead shots not only of the food but also of the restaurant floor itself. The Altmanesque sound design offers overlapping snippets of conversation, putting us right in the mix. And the taunting and playful score from Colin Stetson enhances the film’s rhythm, steadily ratcheting up the tension.

It’s a nice place to visit—but you wouldn’t want to eat there.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik
• Nicholas Hoult as Tyler
• Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot
• Hong Chau as Elsa
• Janet McTeer as Lillian Bloom
• Judith Light as Anne
• John Leguizamo as Movie Star
• Rob Yang as Bryce
• Mark St. Cyr as Dave
• Reed Birney as Richard
• Aimee Carrero as Felicity
• Arturo Castro as Soren
• Christopher Tellefsen
• Colin Stetson

Cinematographer

• Peter Deming

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'The Menu' Is Funny, Thrilling and All Sorts of Weird in the Best Way Possible

The menu is a zany, thrilling adventure that makes for one of the year’s most surprising hits, with an expertly executed mashing of comedy and horror..

Every once in a while a movie comes around that makes me go “shit, didn’t think that was a story I could’ve imagined.” Mark Mylod’s The Menu is one of those weird but delightful ones that I had the fortune of watching early. After spending years being shopped around on the blacklist, The Menu is a zany thriller with grabbing performances that can best be experienced with a large group.

The Menu stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult as they embark on feasting the world-famous Chef Slowik’s (Ralph Fiennes) exclusive menu on a tropical island, away from the safety and comfort of the larger world. Joining them are a host of interesting characters that you’d recognize archetypes of from any decent murder mystery, but this isn’t one of them. No, this is much, much different. After a few awkward meals, the tension rises and it becomes clear that many, if not all, of them, are not going to make it out alive and well. It turns out Slowik has a plan for all of them, which mostly includes a few delicacies revealing their flaws in them before their planned deaths. Each serving of a new course reveals something new about them, either implicitly or explicitly, before turning into a madhouse.

I went into the movie blind, having glimpsed at only the posters and maybe 15 seconds of a TV spot. I was not ready for a “horror” film. And The Menu is hard to categorize since it’s equal parts thriller and black comedy with hints of satirical comedy sprinkled on top as icing.

Chef Slowik is, as most movies have shown us, driven by a massive ego and a sense of mysticism to his activities that you can’t help but be glued to the next time he opens his mouth. Fiennes is, as always, magnetic. He commands the attention of his customers and staff in equal measure, and his unpredictable nature only adds to the aura surrounding him. Slowik has prepared a very special, customized menu for his customers for this particular evening, and as the night goes on his love for his craft as well as disdain for this cast of characters goes beyond what people would call “creative passion.”

Beyond Fiennes, what a year has it been for Anya Taylor-Joy?! From The Northman to Amsterdam to now The Menu , the young actor continues to prove talented with a strong screen presence. Perhaps similar to her roles in those, she seems to look much younger than her role lets on, but it works here for adding another wall between her and other visitors at Chef Slowik’s restaurant. Her arrival at the island is the only thing that wasn’t accounted for by Slowik, and that makes for some great back-and-forths between his eccentric attitude and her carelessness about his art.

The rest of the cast has enough dissimilarities for all of them to be unforgettable. Pretty much every character here gets a few moments to shine, leaving a lasting impression. Janet McTeer, Paul Adelstein, John Leguizamo, Arturo Castro are the standouts amongst those, and the limited interactions they have along with their own commentary on the situation provide points of view aplenty.

The Menu has all the hallmarks of a cheap-but-smart movie: one set location, excellent blocking, a script that’s very much glued to its dialogue, and really motivated editing that makes this rather small story feel grand. It’s the kind of script that novice filmmakers may try to film, but will probably fail in adding the little details that matter. How in just a few lines you can clearly define a character like Tyler (Hoult), or the excellent planting of certain techniques that, when subverted just slightly, can get the biggest laughs.

That said, the satirical commentary that Slowik’s menu provides kinda runs out of steam towards the end, devolving into something that feels out of place. Thankfully, it’s a small enough part of the movie that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment one bit. The actual resolution of the film is one that you’ll probably scream “that’s stupid!” at if you weren’t vibing with what Mylad’s going for. In that, I respect any film that commits to its personality 100% of the way through, and The Menu certainly does that in spades. Revealing any more details about this wonderfully weird adventure would spoil too much, so just sit back, relax, pick up your forks, and enjoy the meal that has been prepared for you.

The Menu is a thrilling adventure that makes for one of the year’s most surprising hits, with an expertly executed mashing of comedy and horror.

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The Menu review: A deliciously wicked food-world satire

Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy go knives out at the restaurant from hell.

If we cannot eat the rich, at least we can enjoy their suffering on screen with a side of fermented sea lettuce and light schaudenfraude in The Menu , a glossy, skewering satire in theaters this Friday. (That it comes from a director who helmed more than a dozen episodes of Succession feels, at the least, apropos.)

Anyone who has ever casually wandered through a high-end farmers' market or been cornered by that guy at a cocktail party who wants to talk about his yeasts knows the heights of obsessive fervor and small-batch self-regard that the mere act of putting food in your body engenders among a certain subset of people with enough time and money to call themselves gourmands. For Tyler ( The Great 's Nicholas Hoult ), it seems to comprise his entire personality: Whatever he does for a living — it's never said, though it must be lucrative — his interests begin and end with the dogged pursuit of elevated eating; if you cook it (or confit it, or turn it into a gelé), he will come.

That's why he's one of a dozen people boarding a boat to a small island to have dinner at Hawthorne, a modernist temple of molecular gastronomy overseen by a celebrated chef named Julian Slowik ( Ralph Fiennes ), and paying $1,250 per head for the privilege. "What, are we eating a Rolex?" Tyler's date Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) scoffs, incredulous — though this crowd probably would, as long as it were served sous-vide. Among the guests, there's a washed-up movie star ( John Leguizamo ) and his fed-up assistant (Aimee Carrero), a starchy older couple ( Reed Birney and Judith Light ) who've already done this many times before, a vaunted critic ( Ozark 's Janet McTeer ) and her toadying editor (Paul Adelstein), and a trio of braying finance bros (Rob Yang, Arturo Castro, and Mark St. Cyr). If anyone doesn't belong there it's Margot, and Julian, his unblinking gaze like an X-ray, seems to know it.

On arrival, the bespokeness of the Hawthorne experience does not disappoint. The windswept island is raw but beautiful, an entire ecosystem devoted to Julian's meticulous dishes; in the distance, a diligent staffer scurries, harvesting scallops fresh from the bay. But Elsa ( Watchmen 's Hong Chau ), the restaurant's unflappable hostess, seems to seethe beneath her faultless civility, and the kitchen staff treat Julian more like a cult leader than a man who makes entrées out of "charred milk lace" for millionaires. It doesn't take many courses — an opulent parade of breadless bread plates, elaborately tweezered proteins, and unknowable foams — for the bloody unraveling to begin.

The script, by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, has no shortage of broad targets on its dartboard; when have the follies of the rich and feckless not been easy fodder for black comedy? Hoult is very good at playing a priggish foodie fanboy, though if his character were a dish, it would doubtless be dismissed by Julian as one-note; all acid, no umami. Light, as a tremulous Stepford wife watching her world unravel with each glass of natural wine, does an enormous amount of acting with very few lines, and McTeer plays her imperious critic with casual, note-perfect hauteur. Taylor-Joy brings a cagey survivalism to Margot, a girl who gives the sense she's had to get herself out of ugly scenarios many times before, and the notes Chau hits are delicious, a symphony of passive-aggressive bitchery.

It's Fiennes, though, who most makes a feast of his role. The Menu 's swishy, gleeful satire is not his ordinary milieu, but he's too good an actor not to turn Julian into a far better monster than we probably deserve, careening between sniffy pique, red-hot malevolence, and small, strange pockets of tenderness. The movie loses some momentum in the final third, and tends to over-egg its caricatures of all these platinum-card fools and clueless masters of the universe. But its appetite for destruction is also too much fun in the end to refuse: a giddy little amuse bouche for the apocalypse to come. Grade: B+

Related content:

• The secrets behind the authentically pretentious food in The Menu
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The Menu Reviews

In the end, The Menu is a little like an unrisen souffle. Delicious but not quite as lofty as it hoped.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 11, 2024

This gourmet show takes unforeseen directions when each step of the menu is transformed into a theatrical act, where the tension will go to a crescendo and the experience that chef Slowik and his team have prepared is not what the diners expected...

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 22, 2024

The Menu is an entertaining horror satire with a marvelous ensemble cast but fails to deliver a slightly interesting punch line.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024

“The Menu” demonstrates how capitalism and its relationship to consumerism can actively suck the joy from creatives, particularly as they attempt to fulfil the needs of the most affluent and entitled consumers.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2024

“The Menu” suggests that such fanatism to an ephemeral art which requires hard work and isolation could lead to a cult like atmosphere brewing insanity and resentment

Full Review | Jun 8, 2024

There were so many moments I loved

Full Review | Apr 24, 2024

Its A Solid B

Despite knowing how the story goes and where the twists and turns are, The Menu is a film that I can see myself going back to again and again.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 1, 2024

The movie captivated the audience in a way that held us hostage to Chef Slowik's emotional manipulation. This was cunningly executed.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2023

The Menu perfectly and sharply captures the milieu of this fine dining world with a scathing takedown of the condescension and pretension that fuels it.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Black satire skewers the world of haute cuisine.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

With splashes of horror and comedy, The Menu explores the world of fine dining restaurants. The movie has a stellar cast, including Fiennes and Taylor-Joy, who are incredible and magnetic together.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

The Menu delivers an engaging time and will leave the audience with a tantalizing sardonic meal.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

...when the writers found themselves in a difficult plot situation, they resorted to the cheat of some sort of magical powers the Chef can weld with a whisper. Each time such a moment happens, the film begins to lose its grip on the reality of horror.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 9, 2023

The Menu is a perfectly cooked, deliciously evil delight of a film that definitely won't be to everyone's tastes, but if it's your sort of dish at all, you're all but guaranteed to love every minute of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 4, 2023

This gastronomic experience leaves no space for its comedic quips or food for thought, leaving way too much to be desired.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 29, 2023

In a unique pairing with the palpable tension comes the dark humor of the film— two facets that usually do not go hand in hand in film as laughter famously diffuses any built up tension, but The Menu cooks up a balance that really works.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 26, 2023

“The Menu” is best explained by Hong Chau’s Elsa when she whispers to one of the guests during dinner: “You’ll eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.”

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

A delicious satire that bites right into any industry that people obsess over. A haunting watch but one that will have you laughing & completely in love with the script.

The Menu deserves to be seen with very little knowledge of the plot. Even the trailers (and likely this review) give too much away. It’s a dark, vicious satire that expertly unfolds itself over the course of ten dishes.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

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‘the menu’ review: anya taylor-joy, ralph fiennes and nicholas hoult headline mark mylod’s tasty satire.

A group of epicureans travel to a remote island for the ultimate dining experience in the 'Succession' director's feature premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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Cliff-hangers and a "world i hadn't lived in": why billy crystal made rare tv move to star in 'before', james gunn reveals how 'top gun: maverick' influenced 'superman'.

Mylod is best known for his television direction —  Shameless, Game of Thrones and most recently Succession (for which he’s nabbed an Emmy nomination) — but he’s not new to film. His earlier projects The Big White (in 2005) and What’s Your Number (in 2011) are mostly forgotten, but with The Menu , a movie that flaunts a sharp vision, the director makes an exciting, confident return to film.

Written by Willy Tracy ( Sucession ) and Seth Reiss ( Late Night with Seth Myers ), The Menu follows Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ), an insufferable epicurean, and his date Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), a woman shrouded in mystery, for dinner at Hawthorn. They are among the restaurant’s 12 guests, who also include a never named actor trying to resuscitate his career (John Leguizamo) and his unhappy assistant, Felicity (Aimee Carrero); Lillian Bloom, a delusional restaurant critic ( Janet McTeer ), and her spineless editor, Ted (Paul Adelstein); Anne ( Judith Light ) and Richard (Reed Birney), a wealthy couple; and Bryce (Rob Yang), Soren (Arturo Castro) and Dave (Mark St. Cyr), a trio of obnoxious tech bros whose boss is Hawthorn’s main investor; and a mystery person I won’t spoil here.

An efficient but unhurried introduction sketches each character enough for us to understand the outlines of their personalities. Everyone, except for Margot, shares a reality of wealth, access and privilege. When we meet the pair, Tyler is admonishing Margot for smoking cigarettes, insisting that she will char her tastebuds. Margot doesn’t care: She can’t relate to Tyler’s reverence of expensive culinary experiences, and finds his devotion humorous.

The Menu is structured around Hawthorn’s tasting menu, and the film’s arresting visual language is reflected in the meals, which are each presented with brief, witty title cards. Elsa leads the diners to the main dining room — a steely open-concept kitchen that flirts with a brutalist aesthetic — after the tour. In Ethan Tobman’s clean-cut production design, grays and cold blues dominate the color palette. The orange from the fireplace lining the walls and the kitchen’s open flames merely add an illusion of warmth.

The guests are seated. The servers push their chairs in and lay napkins on their laps. A chipper sommelier floats through the room offering aged reds and chilled whites. When Chef materializes to greet his captive audience, the buzz dies and eyes settle on him. His introduction is a poetic recitation of his food philosophy. There are sinister undertones, but the enamored diners don’t realize they are caught in a malefic game of cat-and-mouse until the second course (raw diver scallop, pickled local seaweeds and algae). By that time, it’s too late.

Tension builds with the courses, each more outlandish than the last. Tracy and Reiss’ slick, inventive screenplay pokes fun at the stresses of culinary life without cheapening the level of creativity and trust it takes to serve high-caliber meals each night. Collin Stetson’s score — imposing, nail-biting, swelling — further immerses us in the Hawthorn kitchen’s spell.

But the basic conclusions drawn from the depiction of class tensions threaten to unravel this otherwise tightly wrought story about the pressure-cooker conditions created by capitalism and its inconsistent application. Those who aren’t rich can’t afford to get off the hamster wheel. The Menu teases a more subtle, mordant analysis than it ultimately delivers with its over-reliance on the Chef’s rhapsodic, overly expository speeches.

Myod’s film is strongest when it focuses on process, and portrays just how the staff sautés, cures, ferments, measures, flavors, garnishes and obsessively constructs each dish. In those moments, executing a tasting menu begins to resemble the spectacle of theater: There are high stakes, bigger egos and an endless pursuit of an ephemeral feeling.

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