The Menu

Showtimes December 2 - 8:

On a 12-acre island sits a temple of haute cuisine called Hawthorne – a farm-to-table destination where diners pay $1,250 a head to sample the menu assembled by Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). He’s a guru of the food world who introduces each course with a thunderous hand clap and encourages his diners to “taste” but not to “eat,” and tonight, he finds himself serving a room full of diners with theatrical levels of personality flaws. There’s a foodie and his girlfriend, who are both experiencing the evening quite differently (Nicholas Hoult & Anna Taylor-Joy); a restaurant critic and her overly agreeable editor (Janet McTeer & Paul Adelstein); a movie star (John Leguizamo); and a trio of Tech Bros who expect special treatment.

For this elite few, what starts as an artful, if pretentious, meal grows increasingly questionable as the evening progresses. Apace with the menu, the film’s comedy increases its edge while continually revolving around a tasty question: In haute cuisine, what matters? The “food” at Hawthorne is an abstraction, an idea generated to fulfill some notion of perfection that has little to do with sustenance or pleasure and everything to do with the vanity of those creating and consuming it. A plate, after all, can leave you hungry no matter how divine. But we hope The Menu leaves you fully satisfied.

(US / 2022 / Directed by Mark Mylod)
R / 1 hr 46 mins