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The Menu
A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
2022 · Directed by Mark Mylod · 107 min · Comedy · Horror · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
Painstakingly prepared. Brilliantly executed.
Plot
Wealthy foodie Tyler Ledford brings his date Margot Mills to Hawthorn, an exclusive restaurant on a private island operated by celebrity chef Julian Slowik. Their fellow guests are food critic Lillian Bloom and her editor Ted Feldman, wealthy regulars Richard and Anne Liebrandt, washed-up movie star George Diaz and his personal assistant Felicity Lynn, business partners Soren, Dave, and Bryce, who work for Slowik's angel investor Doug Verrick, and Slowik’s alcoholic mother, Linda. The group is given a tour by maître d'hôtel Elsa, who notes that Margot is not Tyler's original guest.
Dinner begins, and Slowik introduces a series of increasingly unsettling courses. For the third course, uncomfortable truths about each guest are laser-etched on tortillas. Sous-chef Jeremy Louden kills himself at the start of the fourth course, and when Richard tries to leave, the staff cuts off his finger as a warning to the others. Unhappy with Verrick's interference, Slowik has him drowned in front of the guests. The fifth course commences with Slowik allowing himself to be stabbed by Katherine, an employee he sexually harassed. The female guests dine with Katherine while the male guests are given the chance to escape the island, with Slowik's staff catching them all; Ted, the last to be caught, is given a Passard egg dish as a reward.
Slowik explains that the guests were invited because they have either caused him to lose his passion for his craft or exploited food artisans like himself, and states all will be dead by the night's end. Since Margot's presence was unplanned, Slowik privately gives her the choice of dying with the staff or the guests. When she hesitates, he chooses the staff. Margot admits she is an escort named Erin, whose clients included Richard, who hired her to roleplay as his daughter. Slowik reveals that Tyler was informed the guests would be killed, but was so desperate to experience the restaurant that he hired Margot to replace his ex-girlfriend because Hawthorn does not seat lone diners. Invited to cook by Slowik, Tyler hastily creates an unflattering dish that fails to live up to his pretensions. Slowik humiliates him and whispers in his ear, causing a deflated and defeated Tyler to leave the kitchen.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy
- Cinematography: Peter Deming
- Edited by: Christopher Tellefsen
- Music: Colin Stetson
- Production design: Ethan Tobman
- Produced by: Adam McKay, Betsy Koch, Katie Goodson, DanTram Nguyen
Cast
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot
- Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik
- Nicholas Hoult as Tyler
- Janet McTeer as Lillian
- Paul Adelstein as Ted
- Rob Yang as Bryce
- Aimee Carrero as Felicity
- John Leguizamo as Movie Star
- Arturo Castro as Soren
- Reed Birney as Richard
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, Spanish
- Studios: Hyperobject Industries, Searchlight Pictures, Gary Sanchez Productions, TSG Entertainment
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $79,628,200
- Themes: psychopath, obsession, mass murder, restaurant, dark comedy, revenge, food, mass suicide, dinner, chef
More by Mark Mylod
On this film
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