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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 .

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The Menu (2022)

Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references.

107 minutes

Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik

Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot

Nicholas Hoult as Tyler

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

Cinematographer

Peter Deming
Christopher Tellefsen
Colin Stetson

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The menu videos, the menu photos.

A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Rating: R (Some Sexual References|Language Throughout|Strong Violent Content)

Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller, Comedy

Original Language: English

Director: Mark Mylod

Producer: Adam McKay , Betsy Koch , Will Ferrell

Writer: Seth Reiss , Will Tracy

Release Date (Theaters): Nov 18, 2022 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Jan 3, 2023

Box Office (Gross USA): $38.5M

Runtime: 1h 47m

Distributor: Searchlight Pictures

Production Co: Hyperobject Industries, Alienworx Productions

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

Cast & Crew

Ralph Fiennes

Chef Slowik

Anya Taylor-Joy

Nicholas Hoult

Janet McTeer

Lillian Bloom

Judith Light

Reed Birney

Paul Adelstein

Aimee Carrero

Arturo Castro

Mark St. Cyr

John Leguizamo

Screenwriter

Will Ferrell

Michael Sledd

Executive Producer

Peter Deming

Cinematographer

Christopher Tellefsen

Film Editing

Colin Stetson

Original Music

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‘The Menu’ Review: Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy in a Restaurant Thriller That Gives Foodie Culture the Slicing and Dicing It Deserves

It's at once a Michelin Star version of "Saw" and a tasty satire of what high-end dining has become.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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If you’re someone who considers themself a foodie (and I totally am), chances are there was a moment in the last few years when you had The Awakening. It may have been when the waiter was describing the veal marrow with beet foam served with baby lettuces from New Zealand. It may have been when you were eating the red snapper that was cooked halfway through, like a rare steak, and you thought, “I love sushi, I love cooked fish, but I’m not sure this is really the best of both worlds.” It may have been when you saw the bill.

“The Menu” is a black comedy, but one played close to the bone. And it is a thriller, because after a while what’s being served to the diners segues from pretentious to dangerous. Even the danger becomes a form of snobbery: This is how much the food matters . Yet the tasty joke of “The Menu” is that the food doesn’t matter at all. The food is an abstraction, an idea , all generated to fulfill some beyond-the-beyond notion of perfection that has little to do with sustenance or pleasure and everything to do with the vanity of those who are creating the food and those who are consuming it.

The latter, in this case, are an ensemble of diner victims as brimming with theatrical flaws as the characters in a “Knives Out” movie. That’s why the knives are out for them. They’re getting what they deserve just for coming to this restaurant, for buying into the dream that this is the meal they’ve earned, because that’s how cool and prosperous and elite they are.

Tyler (Nichols Hoult), a devoted foodie geek, already knows he’s going to love everything that’s served. He had brought along a date, Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), who is not nearly as into it — in fact, she turns into the audience’s cynically levelheaded, ordinary-person representative who sees through all the puffery on display. Lillian (Janet McTeer), a food critic, prides herself on writing the kinds of reviews that close restaurants, so we know she’s going to get her just deserts. There’s also a trio of tech bros (Arturo Castro, Rob Yang, and Mark St. Cyr) who, between the three of them, incarnate every flavor of obnoxious. And there’s a well-liked but fading movie star, played by John Leguizamo, along with his assistant (Aimee Carrero), who’s using the dinner as a pretext to part ways with him.

“The Menu” is divided into courses, with each dish, and its ingredients, listed on screen, and for a while the movie is content to satirize the food. The first dish features foam (a tipoff that it’s not going to melt in your mouth so much as evaporate before you can enjoy it). And that’s the down-to-earth dish. Each succeeding one represents more and more of a deconstruction of food as we know it. Chef Slowik is a mad scientist of gastronomy who has reduced the very essence of cooking to a glorified lab experiment. The diners are his guinea pigs, which may be why he harbors a barely disguised contempt for them. As it turns out, the menu he has masterminded is meticulously arranged for all of them to get their just deserts, as if this were the Michelin Star version of “Saw.”

All the actors are fun, but the two lead actors are so good they’re delicious. Ralph Fiennes plays the art chef from hell as a high fascist of snobbery, as if his mission — to make food that’s to be savored but is somehow too great to eat — were exalting him and tormenting him at the same time. And Anya Taylor-Joy, as the customer who’s got his number, cuts through it all with a sparkle that grows more and more contemptuous, as she puts together the big picture of what’s going on: that the decadent aristocratic superiority of it all is the whole point. The grand finale is bitingly funny, as Chef Slowik deconstructs the ultimate junk food — the smore, a “fucking monstrosity” that will cleanse everything with its fire. “The Menu” says that the trouble with what high-end cuisine has evolved to is that it’s grown too far apart from the low end, leaving nothing in between. No matter how divine the food is, you wind up starving.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 106 MIN.

Production: A Searchlight Pictures release of a Hyperobject Industries, Alienworx Productions production. Producers: Adam McKay, Betsy Koch, Will Ferrell. Executive producers: Michael Sledd, Seth Reiss, Will Tracy.
Crew: Director: Mark Mytod. Screenplay: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy. Camera: Peter Deming. Editor: Christopher Tellefsen. Music: Colin Stetson.
With: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, John Lequizamo, Reed Birney, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang.

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The Menu Is Deliciously Mean

Auguste Escoffier, the inventor of the brigade system that still informs how so many commercial kitchens are run today, was inspired by bullying and battlefields. As a teenager, he got pushed around while apprenticing with his uncle, and as a 20-something army enlistee during the Franco-Prussian War, he saw potential in repurposing military structures to bring order, cleanliness, and hierarchy to the kitchen. The bullying, you could argue, didn’t go away so much as it became sublimated into the profession Escoffier helped elevate to an art, with an emphasis on obedience and discipline. When the FX series The Bear , which is essentially about a group of restaurant workers trying to figure out a better way of doing things when the only models they have are toxic, came out in June, it prompted as many PTSD shudders from industry employees past and present as it did “Yes, chef!” memes.

The kitchen staff in The Menu , a deliciously mean movie from frequent Succession director Mark Mylod and Onion alums Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, bark “Yes, chef,” too, and when they do, it’s with an unsettling martial precision. Whatever haute cuisine’s pretensions — and The Menu skewers many; it is as much black comedy as it is thriller — the kitchen is not actually a war zone. And yet at Hawthorne, a fictional restaurant that seats only a dozen customers a night at $1,250 a pop, workers are pinned between the belief that what they’re doing is worth sacrificing everything for and the reality that they have surrendered their lives to grueling service work. A sad-eyed and scary Ralph Fiennes plays star chef Julian Slowik, who’s both the staffers’ chief abuser and a fellow captive, as well as the guiding force behind a particularly ambitious evening at his exclusive eatery. Fiennes is adept with a barely there sneer, which he puts to great use here in a role that’s the most fun he’s been since Hail, Caesar!

In terms of the diners, there are a few finance bros (Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang) more invested in the status that comes with a reservation than the experience itself. There are the celebrities: a preening food critic (Janet McTeer), her editor (Paul Adelstein), and a slightly tarnished movie star (John Leguizamo) in the company of his assistant (Aimee Carrero). Then there are the monied regulars (Reed Birney and Judith Light), as well as a simpering foodie named Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) whose date, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), is the film’s heroine and lone unexpected attendee — the guest list has been as carefully curated as the meal. Tyler is a superfan prone to saying things like “Chefs, they play with the raw materials of life itself, and death itself,” and he’s increasingly exasperated with Margot’s indifference to the food and accompanying narrative, though you can’t really blame her. Hawthorne, located on a small island a short ferry ride from the mainland, feels inspired by the setting of Lummi Island’s the Willows Inn and the Scandi severity of Noma in Copenhagen. But the dishes, designed by actual chef Dominique Crenn, quickly take a turn toward the absurd with a fussily plated amuse-bouche giving way to a “breadless bread course” that’s basically a series of dips — then on to something darker.

There’s no tastier meal than the rich, though what makes The Menu more satiating than other recent, glitzier skewerings of ultracapitalism is that its satire isn’t so glib that it leaves you feeling comfortably outside of the proceedings. Instead, it summons the suffocating feeling of having no way out of a doomed setup. Julian’s breakdown owes as much to the personal and the petty as it does to the systemic. And he and his collaborators — among them an aridly precise maître d’ (Hong Chau) and sous-chefs played by Adam Aalderks and Christina Brucato — have pathos even as their actions veer toward the extreme, while Mylod makes the most of the limited location by turning Hawthorne’s luxurious trappings and surroundings into just a trap. The rage at the heart of The Menu is directed at the impossible melding of art and commerce, at the way we’re taught that success at the former requires the support of the latter, even if it means making crushing compromises that drain the joy out of, in this case, the expressly straightforward pleasure of food. The film has sympathy for the sentiment that there’s no way out of this bargain, but it also appreciates the outrageousness of its own apocalyptic scenario. After all, you can always quit, walk out the door — presuming, that is, that you’re allowed to.

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The Menu review – revenge is served hot in delicious haute cuisine satire

A bunch of ultra-wealthy foodies get more than they bargained for in this riotous black comedy starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy

Succession director Mark Mylod has an acute eye for the absurdity of extreme privilege. So the preposterous world of haute cuisine is almost too easy a target: not so much about eating as worshipping at the altar of the chef’s ego. The chef in this case is Ralph Fiennes , sporting joylessly immaculate whites and an expression of patrician displeasure. The guests at his culinary temple, run with a cult-like devotion by the ferocious front of house manager Elsa (Hong Chau), are a tasteless bunch: a trio of braying investment bankers, a needy movie star, a miserable wealthy couple trying to buy some meaning into their lives. And then there’s Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), the last-minute date of foodie fanboy Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ). Margot is more interested in sneaking a cigarette than fawning over chef’s sous vide technique. She is the one errant ingredient in the evening’s menu.

Subtle it’s not, but it’s maliciously entertaining. It turns out that revenge on the ultra-wealthy is a dish best seared over a naked flame.

Comedy films
The Observer
Ralph Fiennes
Nicholas Hoult
Anya Taylor-Joy

Comments (…)

The bloody thriller The Menu finishes the grim story that Pig started

Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy lead a bloody chiller about a haute-cuisine chef who turns on his patrons

Margo (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman in a sheer spaghetti-strap dress, stares at something offscreen with a horrified expression in The Menu

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This review was first published in conjunction with The Menu ’s premiere at the 2022 Fantastic Fest. It has been updated for the movie’s HBO Max release.

One of the most-discussed movie scenes of 2021 reads like an unplanned prequel to Mark Mylod’s black, bloody comedic thriller The Menu . In Michael Sarnoski’s Pig , chef-turned-backwoods-recluse Rob (Nicolas Cage) gently eviscerates the chef of a ritzy haute cuisine restaurant, who also happens to be one of Rob’s former employees. In Rob’s view, the other chef betrayed himself when he abandoned his dream of owning an intimate, comfortable pub, in favor of serving elaborately deconstructed food to snobs who mostly care about how much it costs. “Every day, you wake up and there’ll be less of you,” Rob tells the chef, who looks devastated — but not like he disagrees. “You live your life for them, and they don’t even see you. You don’t even see yourself.”

The Menu feels like the next step in that story, if the hapless high-end chef had decided to turn Rob’s revelation outward against his clientele instead of inward. The Menu mocks the kind of people who would eat at that restaurant Chef Rob despises, with its “emulsified scallops” and “foraged huckleberry foam, bathed in the smoke from Douglas fir cones.” But it also finds a little humanity in them as well. One of the most intriguing things about the movie is the way the filmmakers find room to skewer every target in sight.

Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Margot, a last-minute date for rich foodie obsessive Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who’s secured a seating at an exclusive restaurant on a private island, headed by the renowned Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). Margot doesn’t care about the kind of food Chef Slowik serves, such as a few artfully spaced blotches of sauce on a plate, billed as a cheeky “breadless bread course.” But Tyler is obsessive about Chef Slowik’s work, and the possibility of earning his attention and interest. They’re an odd couple from the start, with a strange tension between them that suggests secrets waiting to be revealed.

Chef Slowik stands in a large windowed dining area surrounded by restaurant patrons who are all turned toward the windows, looking in shock at something off screen

They aren’t the only ones with secrets. The other diners on this particular evening include a smug food critic (Janet McTeer) and her sycophantic editor (Paul Adelstein), a minor movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero), a trio of loud tech boors who start the night off by boasting about fraudulently expensing their dinner, and an older couple who feel they might recognize Margot. Then there’s Chef Slowik, who’s planned a dangerous “menu” for the evening, designed to bring everyone’s secrets to light.

How far Chef Slowik is willing to go, and what’s going on with Margot, make up most of the complications in The Menu. Otherwise, it might just play out as a fairly grim and familiar revenge thriller aimed at some easy targets: rich, entitled, rude, self-satisfied people. If there weren’t more going on under the surface, The Menu would risk coming across as a fancy version of one of those teen slashers that’s mostly just about watching symbolically obnoxious, shallow young people getting mown down by a killer.

Instead, Seth Reiss and Will Tracy’s script doles out the revelations with a careful sense of pacing and escalation, keeping a balance of sympathies between victims and mastermind. They clearly don’t expect the audience to entirely throw in with the people paying $1,250 apiece for a minimalist dinner, mostly for bragging rights about the experience. But they don’t leave their victims as ciphers, either. Margot naturally gets center stage, and Taylor-Joy gives her a fierce, brittle “I’m totally over this nonsense” energy that makes her a compelling protagonist. Hoult gives an equally strong performance as a man being forced to come to terms with his own pretensions in a particularly painful way. But each character in turn gets a little stage time, including Chef Slowik’s dedicated assistant, Elsa (Hong Chau, fresh off The Whale , but most memorable as the villain in the 2019 Watchmen series ).

And Fiennes himself is a considerable asset, as usual. He directs the action at his restaurant like a cult leader, puts on a warm, benevolent face when it suits the story, then brings a ruthless form of cold psychopathy to the table for other scenes. Trying to guess what’s under his surface is one of the movie’s bigger challenges, and one of its biggest joys, mostly because he’s scripted and performed as a villain with a few sympathetic wrinkles, a man who courts empathy and evokes horror at the same time.

A woman in a purple dress (Anya Taylor-Joy) speaks to a man in a Chef’s smock (Ralph Fiennes) while seated at a table surrounded by other patrons.

The Menu often reads like an expansive version of a single-set play, where a group of people forced into close proximity gradually crack under pressure and reveal new things about themselves. A lot of what keeps it going isn’t that stagey energy, but the staging itself. Production designer Ethan Tobman was inspired by everything from Luis Buñuel’s devastating 1962 film The Exterminating Angel (another film about smug elites who can’t escape each other) to German expressionist architecture. He and cinematographer Peter Deming give the film a harsh, punishing chilliness that emphasizes both the lack of comfort or warmth in haute cuisine and the state of Chef Slowik’s mind. It’s an appropriately sumptuous and sense-driven film, with something striking to look at in every frame.

The Menu doesn’t always add up, though. There’s a strange unwillingness to commit to the film’s Grand Guignol potential, likely out of a desire to keep the cast around for the final act. There’s a disconnect between Chef Slowik’s hatred of his guests and the level of their comparative crimes, some of which are far more personal and meaningful than others. The film’s contempt for arrogance and entitlement is straightforward and satisfying, but when other motives start driving the story, like Elsa’s jealousy over Margot or Chef Slowik’s rage over not having each of his dishes remembered, the revenge story curdles a bit.

Still, Reiss and Tracy’s willingness to implicate Chef Slowik along with his vain, surface-obsessed victims gives The Menu some startling intrigue. Like the pretentious chef Nicolas Cage calls out in Pig , Slowik engineered his own downfall and his own torment, and The Menu doesn’t let him off the hook by playing out as a straightforward eat-the-rich morality tale. The humor in this movie is mostly subtle (particularly in the hilariously wry course titles that appear on screen), but it is ultimately as much of a comedy as a horror-thriller. There’s some knuckle-biting tension as viewers wait to see how it’ll all play out, but Mylod and the writers also suggest that it’s worth chuckling a little at everyone involved, whether they’re serving up fancy versions of mayhem or just paying through the nose for it.

The Menu is now streaming on HBO Max and is available for rental on digital platforms like Amazon and Vudu .

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The Inventory

The Menu Is a Pitch Perfect Take Down of Pretension and Privilege

The star-studded, food-centric thriller from the team behind succession played at fantastic fest 2022..

people in fancy restaurant looking outside

If you’re reading a site like this one, odds are at one point in your life, you’ve gotten overly snobby and nerdy about something . Said something or acted so offensively pretentious about a film, album or other piece of art that you even offended yourself. If that’s something you can relate to, you’re really, really going to enjoy The Menu . You’ll probably enjoy it either way, frankly, but if you’ve ever dropped the deepest cut, annoying reference to make yourself sound smart, it’ll just add a whole other level of appreciation. The Menu is the ultimately middle finger to snobbery and modern social dynamics, told in a delightfully intense, hilarious way.

Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy (both soon to be of the Mad Max universe ) star as Tyler and Margot, two of a select group of 12 people who have paid an exorbitant amount of money for a reservation at Hawthorne. Hawthorne is an award-winning restaurant located on its own private island whose head chef named Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) is largely considered the best in the world. From the very first second, Tyler’s obnoxious food vocabulary marks him, and really the film itself, as one that’s going to take its subject way, way too seriously. But that level of snobbery fits right in at Hawthorne, which has an almost disgusting amount of rules, customs, and a menu uniquely tailored to its specific clientele. It’s very detail oriented. Details that, in this case, begin to build to something grander and quite possibly sinister.

As director Mark Mylod ( Succession ) slowly begins to unravel the mystery of Slowik’s dinner, he does so in the style of the best, most high budget episode of Chef’s Table ever. We’re talking full on food porn, with the detailed descriptions, flavor profiles, elaborate reactions, and even on screen titles listing the dish names and ingredients. As a result, that level of comfort many people get from watching food television provides a stark juxtaposition to the increasingly intense, fucked up mystery.

Image for article titled The Menu Is a Pitch Perfect Take Down of Pretension and Privilege

And while we won’t reveal what specifically is afoot here (except to say it isn’t sci-fi, but is so messed up we made the executive decision to cover it on the site anyway), it’s deliciously (pun intended) satisfying. Slowik has a plan that ties in every person, dish, and detail all leading to a grand mission statement that doesn’t just put his patrons in danger, it turns the mirror on its audience itself.

T he Menu is so critical of its characters, there was probably a danger it could itself turn overly pretentious and snobby like the world it’s poking fun at. Thankfully, the film is so slick and well acted, it never reaches that level. Hoult is an annoying ass, and you love him for it. Taylor-Joy is intense and commanding, and Ralph Fiennes is, well, he’s Ralph Fiennes. Add them to a supporting cast that includes John Leguizamo, Hong Chau, Rob Yang, Janet McTeer, and Judith Light, and you’ve got the perfect icing on this cake of this subversive dark comedy.

The Menu opens in theaters November 18.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power .

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The Menu review: an unpredictable and viciously funny thriller

“The Menu is a scathing, satirical thriller that makes it easy to get lost in the power of Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy's lead performances.”

Ralph Fiennes' pitch-perfect performance
A clever, biting script
A well-cast ensemble
Several underwritten supporting characters
A third act that gets a little too silly
Two last-minute twists that fall flat

The Menu is a charbroiled, scathing piece of genre filmmaking. Its script, which was penned by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, takes so many shots at so many targets that the film ends up having the same texture and bite as a marinated bird that’s still got pieces of buckshot in it. If that makes it sound like The Menu is a scattered blast of satire, that’s because it is, and not all of the shots that the film takes prove to be as accurate as others. It is, nonetheless, one of the more enjoyable and engaging social thrillers that have come out of Hollywood’s ongoing post- Get Out era .

That’s due, in no small part, to how The Menu cleverly uses the increasingly popular realm of avant-garde cooking as a vehicle to make many of its often blisteringly funny critiques of the world’s social and financial elite. By setting its story in a field that has only been explored in a handful of recent films, The Menu is largely able to keep many of its increasingly common social critiques from growing stale. The success of the film can also be directly linked to Ralph Fiennes’ straight-faced, pitch-perfect performance as the orchestrator of all of The Menu ’s many unpredictable thrills, chills, and laughs.

Fiennes stars in the film as Julian Slowik, a celebrity chef who has taken to living full-time on the isolated island where his high-end restaurant, Hawthorne, is located. The Menu doesn’t follow Slowik, though. Instead, it takes the perspective of Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a woman who has been invited by Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to take part in an exclusive night of dining at Hawthorne. The pair are joined on their voyage by a number of snobbish patrons, including an arrogant food critic (Janet McTeer), a has-been movie star (John Leguizamo), and a trio of oblivious financial sector bros.

Where to watch The Menu
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Once Tyler, Margot, and the rest of Slowik’s diners arrive for their night at Hawthorne, though, things quickly begin to take a dark, surprisingly morbid turn. Before long, it’s clear that Slowik’s plans for the evening aren’t nearly as simple as his latest batch of patrons expected. His vision for the night is threatened, however, by the presence of Margot, who Tyler invited at the last minute after his original date (understandably) broke up with him.

Margot’s arrival allows The Menu to become not only a high-tension thriller , but also a battle of wills between her and Fiennes’ Slowik, who she has far more in common with than either might initially think. Although that might sound like a lot for The Menu to take on, especially given the delightfully mean-spirited streak of satire that runs throughout it, the film manages to successfully blend its thriller, horror, and comedy elements together for most of its runtime. Even in the moments when The Menu leans a little too hard into comedy or horror, most of which occur during its messy third act, the film always corrects itself quickly enough to stop it from going totally off the rails.

The film’s performers also clearly understand the assignment that they’ve been given and, as a result, everyone on screen manages to turn in performances that feel both slyly tongue-in-cheek and totally committed. Of the film’s many performers, no one stands out quite like Fiennes, though, who is given a role in The Menu that allows him to fully weaponize some of his greatest strengths, including his unique ability to combine Slowik’s attitude of knowing arrogance with a kind of raw, untempered rage.

Opposite him, Taylor-Joy turns in another reliably commanding performance in a role that really only lets her really spread her wings once, though the moment in question is one of the best that The Menu has to offer. Hoult, meanwhile, gives a totally clueless performance as the ultra-annoying Tyler that not only calls to mind his scene-stealing turn in Yorgos Lanthimos ’ The Favourite , but which also cements him as one of the more quietly versatile actors of his generation. Hong Chau makes a similarly effective mark as Elsa, the tempered but ruthless second-in-command to Fiennes’ Slowik.

Behind the scenes, director Mark Mylod and editor Christopher Tellefsen ensure that The Menu maintains a fairly brisk pace for the entirety of its 106-minute runtime. Even the film’s exposition-heavy opening prologue clips by quickly, thanks to the operatic, almost Bong Joon-ho-esque cutting style that Mylod and Tellefsen implement throughout it. While there are moments when it seems like The Menu could stand to be a little nastier and more gnarly, Mylod wisely knows when to pause his constantly roving visual style in order to allow the film’s more uncomfortable scenes to truly breathe and build.

As has been the case with many of the social genre thrillers that Hollywood has produced over the past five years, The Menu doesn’t totally stick its landing. The film’s third act, in particular, attempts to stack gag-upon-gag-upon-gag in the hopes of heightening The Menu ’s stakes and tension, but most of them just end up creating unnecessary logic gaps. Those moments inevitably end up preventing The Menu from emerging as the kind of artfully prepared, five-star meal that its fictional chefs so desperately want to deliver. What The Menu does provide, though, is the kind of admirably bare-bones experience that’ll leave most patrons smiling and, above all else, satisfied.

The Menu is now playing in theaters nationwide. For more on the film, read our article on The Menu ‘s ending, explained .

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Product Reviews

Entergalactic isn’t like most other animated movies that you’ll see this year — or any year, for that matter. The film, which was created by Scott Mescudi a.k.a. Kid Cudi and executive producer Kenya Barris, was originally intended to be a TV series. Now, it’s set to serve as a 92-minute companion to Cudi’s new album of the same name. That means Entergalactic not only attempts to tell its own story, one that could have easily passed as the plot of a Netflix original rom-com, but it does so while also featuring several sequences that are set to specific Cudi tracks.

Beyond the film’s musical elements, Entergalactic is also far more adult than viewers might expect it to be. The film features several explicit sex scenes and is as preoccupied with the sexual politics of modern-day relationships as it is in, say, street art or hip-hop. While Entergalactic doesn’t totally succeed in blending all of its disparate elements together, the film’s vibrantly colorful aesthetic and infectiously romantic mood make it a surprisingly sweet, imaginative tour through a fairytale version of New York City.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Dark horror-comedy is bloody, funny, and tasty.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Talks at length about artistry and the mysterious,

Margot is the first character to show skepticism t

A woman is the main character. Among the male and

Character shoots self in head: huge blood spurt, b

Dialogue about sexual advances. Brief dialogue abo

Several uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "Jesus f--

Diners drink wine throughout, sometimes to excess.

Positive Messages

Talks at length about artistry and the mysterious, complex connection between art, an artist, and consumers of art. Artists can lose their passion, but audiences can also ruin the work with a lack of appreciation -- or an overly fastidious appreciation. Seems to argue that simplicity, passion, and love are best, while prestige, wealth, and fame can only spoil things.

Positive Role Models

Margot is the first character to show skepticism toward the movie's strange situation -- and the first to stand up for what's right and to try to save herself (and, hopefully, the others). She has a rebellious, devil-may-care attitude. She's not exactly admirable, but she's a fighter.

Diverse Representations

A woman is the main character. Among the male and female diners, there are two Asian men, a Black man, and a Latino man; one woman presents as Latina. All are shown to be flawed or crooked in various ways. Among the chefs, there are a few women (one is Asian), but many are White men; head chef is a White man.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Character shoots self in head: huge blood spurt, blood on floor. Person's finger chopped off, bloody wound. Person stabbed in thigh with scissors. Characters fight over knife; one is stabbed in the neck, gurgling blood. Person hangs self with necktie. Someone is drowned. Another person burns in flames. Other characters die. Chase through woods. Woman jumping at man, slapping him. Explosion.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Dialogue about sexual advances. Brief dialogue about infidelity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "Jesus f---ing Christ," "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "badass," "pr--k," "hell," "whore," and "oh my God." "Jesus Christ," "Jesus," and "Christ" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Diners drink wine throughout, sometimes to excess. Main character smokes cigarettes. Brief mention of a character having a DUI.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Menu is a horror comedy about a couple ( Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult ) dining at an exclusive, high-end restaurant where the chef ( Ralph Fiennes ) has something sinister cooking. It's a very satisfying combination of shocks, laughs, and ideas, and it's recommended to mature foodies. Expect gory moments, including blood spatters, a gunshot to the head, a severed finger, stabbing, hanging, a fight over a knife, gurgling blood, a character burning, and more death. Characters use words such as "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), and more, and there's some dialogue about sexual advances and infidelity. The main character occasionally smokes cigarettes, and all the diners drink wine, sometimes to excess. There's also a mention of a character having a DUI. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (12)
Kids say (21)

Based on 12 parent reviews

Graphic suicide scene

Unpredictable, occasionally violent thriller is funny and original, what's the story.

In THE MENU, Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) and Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ) prepare for an evening out at the exclusive Hawthorne facility, where a meal costs $1,250 per person. Tyler is a passionate foodie and a huge fan of Chef Julian Slowik ( Ralph Fiennes ), who runs the restaurant. Only 12 customers will be dining tonight, and the night's menu is designed to tell a specific story. Things start getting strange when the staff discover that Margot isn't on the reservation list (she's taking the place of Tyler's ex-girlfriend) -- and stranger still when the guests are given a bread plate with no bread. But when a sous chef presents his creation as one of the courses and then shoots himself in the head, the guests truly begin to wonder whether it's all part of the show ... or if something more sinister is cooking.

Is It Any Good?

It's complete nonsense, but this very dark horror-comedy strikes just the right notes of stone-cold humor and red-hot malevolence, making for a delectable dish that satisfies all the way down. In The Menu , the guests, as Chef Julian points out directly, never make much of an attempt to save themselves. And even though viewers might find this frustrating, there's truth in their combination of sheer disbelief and sense of decorum. The movie's wicked genius lies not only in its execution but also in its ultimate themes. As the food keeps coming and small things are revealed, some of the guests continue to enjoy the show and eat; it's a fascinating psychological and social experiment. Where does perception end and reality begin?

And even though the ultimate plan in The Menu is a whopper of a doozy, the theme behind it is a thoughtful exploration of art, artists, and their complex relationship with consumers. The Menu balances gut-level humor and horror with higher-minded themes, all with a twinkle in its eye and a gleam of its blade. Fiennes plays the chef with a clever restraint and even a bit of fatigue (he recalls, ever so slightly, his take on Voldemort), forgoing the hints of madness that many other actors usually choose for villain roles. And Taylor-Joy projects strength and independence, indignant when her date tries to shush her by snapping his fingers ("Did you just snap at me?"). Director Mark Mylod , a small-screen veteran from Severance and Game of Thrones , keeps the small-scale, one-location movie feeling fluid and kinetic. Overall, it's a palate-pleaser.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Menu 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Would you consider this a horror movie ? Why, or why not? Is it scary? If not, what makes it horrific?

Have you ever made something for someone who didn't appreciate it? How did that feel? How does art create communication between a creator and a consumer?

How does the movie depict drinking and smoking ? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

Does Chef Julian take responsibility for his own perceived failings? Does he blame others? What's the difference?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 18, 2022
On DVD or streaming : January 17, 2023
Cast : Anya Taylor-Joy , Ralph Fiennes , Nicholas Hoult
Director : Mark Mylod
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Searchlight Pictures
Genre : Horror
Topics : Cooking and Baking
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references
Last updated : August 29, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Ending of The Menu , Explained

When the food is so good, it's to die for.

film still from the menu, showing ralph fiennes as chef julian and anya taylor joy as margot looking at each other while standing in the kitchen

In The Menu , r enowned chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) meticulously crafts a dining experience tailored to 11 of the restaurant's patrons—but the unexpected appearance of Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a sex worker hired to accompany fellow guest Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to dinner, ruins his plans.

Ahead, we explain the movie's shocking ending. (Proceed at your own risk—spoilers are ahead!)

What happens at the end of The Menu ? Does Margot survive?

Erin, an escort who goes by the name Margot while working), accompanies Tyler, a cult follower of chef Julian Slowik, to an exclusive dinner prepared at Julian's high-end restaurant, Hawthorne. The restaurant, located on a remote island where Julian and his army of kitchen staff live and work, promises a night of culinary storytelling to its wealthy patrons—but, little do they realize that they're on the menu.

Julian plays the part of the mad genius, driven to despair despite his acclaim due to his clientele's nonchalant disregard for his craft. His solution? To liberate himself and his patrons with one last meal, in which he slowly reveals to them the sins of their ways (cheating scandals, money laundering, et cetera). As the night goes on and as people are shot, stabbed, and sliced at, the diners gradually realize that they and all of Hawthorne's workers—including Julian—will die.

Unfortunately for Julian, Erin's arrival throws a wrench in his dinner plans. Tyler, who still willingly came to the island after Julian secretly confided his murderous plans to him ahead of time, hired Erin after his original plus one broke up with him. Initially, Julian attempts to rectify the unforeseen damage by asking Erin to choose a side: stand with the workers or stand with the patrons. She chooses the workers, and Julian sends her on a mission outside of the restaurant to retrieve a canister. Instead, she ventures into Julian's house, where she happens across his treasured career memorabilia, like a photo of him happily flipping burgers when he was a young chef, and a radio. On the radio, she desperately sends out an SOS call, but the Coast Guard officer who arrives turns out to be in on Julian's master plan.

The night forges on, with the last, fatal course imminent. Making a last-ditch effort to escape, Erin confronts Julian head-on, telling him that dessert can't be served yet because she's still starving. She says it like a challenge, which Julian eagerly takes up. When Julian asks her what she'd like to eat, she tells him she wants a simple cheeseburger. What follows is a delicious montage of Julian whipping up the fast food staple, wearing the same rare smile in the photo Erin discovered.

When Julian finishes cooking, Erin graciously accepts the burger, taking a generous bite of the dish. Afterwards, she apprehensively tells him that she overestimated her appetite and asks if she can take the burger to-go. Stunningly, he relents, even giving her a doggy bag for her troubles.

She escapes into the night, heading out into the water via the abandoned Coast Guard boat just in time to see the restaurant erupt into flames behind her. Julian had covered the restaurant and his guests in giant marshmallows, chocolate syrup, and graham cracker crumbles—his lethal interpretation of s'mores—before igniting Hawthorne.

As the ship's engine stalls in the dark of night, Erin, exhausted, sits on the bow and looks out at the fire. She opens up the takeout box and finishes the rest of her meal.

film still from the menu, featuring anya taylor joy as margot sitting at a dinner table in a high end restaurant

Why did Julian spare Erin's life?

The one thing Julian lacks in his illustrious career as a chef is joy. Erin picks up on this and, in mocking his intellectualism and avant-garde menu, she forces him to rekindle his love of cooking by making her a cheeseburger.

"Ralph’s character and Anya’s character are about connection," director Mark Mylod told Den of Geek . "Ultimately, she has manipulated him. He also realized that she’s manipulating him but he allows her to win. All the unspoken business is in the final discourse between them and the burger. It’s a mutual understanding… and he allows her to go 'checkmate.'"

By restoring his integrity as a cook in his final moments, letting Erin escape death is almost Julian's way of expressing his gratitude.

Why don't the diners fight back?

By the time Julian's sous chef shoots himself in the forehead, it should be apparent to every one of the diners that the night has taken a turn for the worst. And yet, the night progresses with little pushback from the terrified patrons.

As Mylod explains, "The absolute futility of escape coupled with the journey they’ve been on, that whisper in the air of Slowik’s words over that evening, over the dinner, the combination of those two elements is just taking them to a place of absolute naked submission." And it doesn't help that there were plenty of cooks keeping guard at all of the restaurant's exits.

As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.

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The Menu Review

18 Nov 2022

Mark Mylod ’s The Menu begins as a dressing-down of opulence before transforming into a trashy genre thriller, veering between delightfully silly, and just plain silly. It’s a thriller that’s never quite thrilling enough, though it’s occasionally surprising, starting with the way its lead characters clash over the setting.

Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ) is a die-hard fanboy of uber-chef Julian Slowik ( Ralph Fiennes ), so the enormous price tag is no object when he has the chance to visit Hawthorne, the chef’s secretive, invite-only restaurant on a lush, secluded island. His excitement is effervescent, if a tad performative. Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), on the other hand, isn’t afraid to make it known how unimpressed she is by all the pomp and circumstance, from Hawthorne’s fancy modernist décor, to the eerily mechanical maître d', Elsa ( Hong Chau ), who is as much a spokesperson as she is an acolyte. Hawthorne is the kind of establishment that demands tireless dedication from its staff, and Mylod satirizes this cult-like kitchen dynamic through amusing exaggerations.

The other diners include an older gentleman who Margot seems to know ( Reed Birney ), a washed-up actor trying to make an impression ( John Leguizamo ), and a rigorous food critic ( Janet McTeer ), all of whom have a full view of the clockwork kitchen from the open dining space. Each time Slowik claps his hands, he commands everyone’s attention. Guests and workers alike hang on Fiennes’ every word, as he passionately describes the emotional impetus behind each deconstructed dish and its theatrical presentation. Before long, the courses begin to take macabre turns that become increasingly personal for the attendees. Unfortunately, while Fiennes may prove joyfully magnetic, this story structure renders all other characters mere passive observers to the plot.

The unfurling plot feels more like a random assemblage of ingredients than a series of carefully considered escalations.

The film’s metamorphosis from measured mystery to horror-comedy comes courtesy of violent accelerations, which arrive suddenly, and often hilariously. The presentation is pristine, akin to a straightforward prestige drama, which yields an amusing disconnect with the mounting absurdities — like Slowik waxing poetic about his violent food-themed horrors and their extravagant staging, practically twirling an invisible moustache. However, The Menu struggles to make his philosophical musings amount to much. The unfurling plot, therefore, feels more like a random assemblage of ingredients than a series of carefully considered escalations. The result is tension that dissipates right when it ought to reach its apex.

Fiennes may approach his role with the finesse of Hannibal Lecter, but The Menu is seldom more than Saw dinner theatre — a spectacle that’s fun in a gaudy sort of way, but without taking too many risks. Ironically, that’s a cardinal sin when one works in fine dining. It’s only marginally more forgivable here.

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The Menu Is Not What You Expect— It’s Better

By Esther Zuckerman

Image may contain Human Person Door John Leguizamo Clothing Apparel Arturo Castro Anya TaylorJoy and Judith Light

Resist the temptation to think you know exactly what’s coming in The Menu . The "eat the rich" social satire has gotten quite a workout in cinema recently, even just at the Toronto International Film Festival, where this new film directed by Succession 's Mark Mylod premiered. Sure enough, The Menu was programmed opposite the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion , both movies that featured a bunch of wealthy assholes gathered on a remote island.

But Mylod’s riff on fine dining and the people who partake consistently zigs where you think it will zag. There is bloodshed and there is retribution, but it's doled out in a way that never feels expected or pat. At the risk of sounding hokey: it's a new spin on a familiar flavor, like pickle ice cream or a chocolate hamburger. The Menu lands its joke about the Chef Table -ification of cuisine while also finding nuance in its “capitalism is a plague” messaging.

The Searchlight Pictures release written by comedy veterans Will Tracy and Seth Reiss opens as a young couple board a yacht that will take them to the exclusive restaurant The Hawthorne, where a seating costs $1,250 a head. Nicholas Hoult 's Tyler is what you would call a "foodie"—he talks about "mouthfeel" and is desperate to photograph everything on his plate, rattling off facts about kitchen appliances. Meanwhile, his date, Margot, played by Anya Taylor-Joy just doesn't get it. With her black nails and combat boots, she's an ill-fit in this crew of bankers, celebrities, and uptight WASPs, and she ignores Tyler's suggestion that she refrain from smoking so as not to ruin her palate. Taylor-Joy radiates a chill, coolest girl in the world vibe, while Hoult is all a-titter. Tyler never gets a significant backstory but Hoult, proving himself again as an unusually talented actor, gives you everything you need to know about this eager-to-please rich guy who uses food as a way to make himself sound interesting.

For a while even after the guests take their seats, The Menu seems like it may just be a take on the ultimate silliness of conceptual food. The officious maître d' ( Hong Chau ) takes the group on a tour of the property, showing off the gardens and the smokehouse, "in the Nordic style." Mylod and cinematographer Peter Deming photograph the dishes as if they were making a Netflix documentary, highlighting the way the line cooks delicately tweeze tiny bits of substance onto a gorgeous but empty looking plate.

But there's a brimming tension that forces the audience to keep guessing just what kind of hell is going to break loose. Each table has its own grievances. Tyler's sycophantic food nerdiness clashes with Margot's "who cares" attitude. There's a frigidness between an older couple played by Judith Light and Reed Birney . A food critic ( Janet McTeer ) picks apart everything that comes across her plate. A movie star ( John Leguizamo ) is bickering with his quitting assistant ( Aimee Carrero ), and a group of bankers is in a never-ending dick measuring contest. The question remains whether this is going to become a vomit-fest like the recent Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness or something supernaturally devilish like the horror movie Ready or Not . Maybe these cooks are just cannibals. The answer is: Not really any of that.

Because at the center of this all is Ralph Fiennes ’s inscrutable Chef Slowik. Fiennes is a master at portraying imperiousness, and Slowik certainly projects that, inspiring fervent loyalty amongst his staff, and thunderously clapping his hands before announcing each course. But Fiennes also strains against this stereotype. As Slowik opines about food as memory and ancient bread customs, you may start to wonder as to whether this guy really believes his own bullshit, a question that keeps nagging until the final shot.

It would be easy for The Menu to fall into blanket dichotomies, but the setting doesn't allow for those. Instead, it interrogates the motives of those who choose to spend their money Iat the The Hawthorne and those who choose to make the kind of food it provides. When Margot, the consummate outsider, is asked to pick a side in the class warfare that is about to break out, the decision is not, exactly, a simple one. Taylor-Joy's natural regalness allows her to slip between tiers, even if at times Margot is more of a dramatic device than actual character.

But the reason you go to a place like The Hawthorne is not just for the substance of the dinner, but also the pageantry, and Mylod provides that. The aesthetic of the uber-rich he helped establish on Succession comes in handy here. There's a beautiful sleekness to the visuals that the wily complications of the script undermine to great effect. It’s comfort food silliness with spiky commentary that leaves you satisfied—all in all, a good meal.

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‘The Menu’ Movie Serves Fine Dining on a Skewer

A look at how the creators of the new satirical film, now streaming on HBO Max, took the already high-pressure world of elite restaurants to a thrilling and terrifying level.

A man in a chef’s jacket looms over a group of young cooks who are bent over their work.

By Julia Moskin

Is the thriller “ The Menu ,” now streaming on HBO Max, a parody of the state of fine dining? You’d think so: A small group of people pay astronomical sums to be isolated on an island, fed ingredients that wash up on the beach by employees who are trapped there, and subjected to the hospitality of a creative visionary who is secretly filled with rage.

Yet much of this is a reality in the top tier of modern restaurants, a world that has become a fascination of popular culture.

The movie is billed as “black comedy horror,” but the horror that stalks this Agatha Christie-style island is not gore; it’s gastronomy. Anyone who has ever felt trapped in a “chef’s tasting,” whether of four or 40 courses, will recognize the roller coaster of claustrophobia and euphoria, satiation and starvation that is “The Menu.”

In interviews with the people who dreamed up the food in the film, the consensus was that the tropes of modern fine dining are so extreme that there’s little need to exaggerate them.

“The more serious you are about something that seems silly, the funnier the work gets,” said the film’s co-writer, Will Tracy, who knows something about parody, having written for “ The Onion ” for many years with his creative partner Seth Reiss.

The film, which which was released in theaters in November , stars Ralph Fiennes as the chef Julian Slowik; Nicholas Hoult as Tyler, the pretentious sycophant who worships him; and Anya Taylor-Joy as his dinner date, Margot, the pragmatist who punctures the balloon.

“You’re the customer, you’re paying him to serve you,” Margot says matter-of-factly to Tyler, who is in a panic about having offended the chef by taking forbidden photos of each course. “It really doesn’t matter whether he likes you or not.”

Hawthorn, the fictional restaurant, is a mash-up of haute-rustic destinations like Noma in Copenhagen; Blue Hill at Stone Barns , north of New York City; Mugaritz in the Basque Country; the Willows in the Pacific Northwest; and the chef Francis Mallman’s private island off the coast of Patagonia. These restaurants, adored by critics and awards panels, and visited mainly by wealthy gastro-tourists, are places where — according to their own literature — chefs are not cooks but “ storytellers ” about “ time and place, ” who are not merely feeding people but “ weaving a tale of senses, gestures and emotions .”

Hawthorn is at the opposite end of the restaurant spectrum from the sandwich shop in last summer’s lovable “ The Bear ,” about an ambitious young chef called home to run his family’s chaotic business, where he introduces the phrase “yes, chef” to build respect and camaraderie in the kitchen. In “The Menu,” when “yes, chef” is demanded by the tyrannical Chef Slowik, it rings of subservience, intimidation and gaslighting.

On the night of the action, Hawthorn is filled with every kind of loathsome, privileged customer: know-nothing finance bros, wealthy regulars who love the access but hardly notice the food, investors with “suggestions” about the menu, celebrities who expect V.I.P. treatment and preening journalists who take credit for putting a restaurant “on the map.” (Ouch.)

Worst of all is Tyler, the needy, aggressive know-it-all who has watched every episode of “ Chef’s Table ” on Netflix “two or three times,” and can’t help showing off that he knows what a Pacojet is (an expensive countertop freezer that makes ice creams, sorbets and snows).

The director, Mark Mylod, said he knew little about this elite corner of the culinary world before working on the film, having grown up working-class in the southwest of England, then working primarily on remote sets for shows like “Succession” and “Game of Thrones.” On shoots in Europe, he said, he had tried restaurants like the one in “The Menu,” and generally felt out of place and underfed.

“As an outsider, there’s a whole language you don’t understand,” he said. “Like opera, your ear has to be trained for it.”

Most people lack the time, the curiosity and the funds to study this arcane art form, but it’s fun to see it skewered.

In one meal, the script hits on countless fine-dining clichés. The restaurant has its own shellfish beds, where diners watch their dinner being harvested; it boasts a “Nordic-style smokehouse” and free-range goats; and the wines are “ hyperdecanted .” The chef is male, but the director of the dining room is a woman (played by Hong Chau ), severely dressed in black and white, who carries out his vision and enforces his rules. Dishes are delivered by a coordinated cadre of cooks in pristine white shirts and roughspun aprons.

The plot holds many outlandish twists, but the food — like a “breadless bread course” of dips and emulsions — is all too real.

Many details weren’t written for laughs, but lifted from actual restaurants. The spice racks are replicated from the kitchen at the Spanish restaurant El Bulli (now closed), housemade granola in gift bags are a nod to Eleven Madison Park and the notion of the “perfectly unripe” strawberry is from the chef René Redzepi of Noma.

A course of a single raw scallop perched on a craggy rock and surrounded by carefully tweezed seaweed and algaes is virtually indistinguishable from an actual dish at Atelier Crenn , a San Francisco restaurant with three Michelin stars. This is not a coincidence: the chef, Dominique Crenn, was brought on to design the dishes in the 10-course meal and to make sure that other culinary details rang true.

She said she identified with Chef Slowik: with his intensity, his vulnerability, his frustration. “We work 18 hours a day, every day, under pressure to feed thousands of people a perfect meal,” she said. “And one person can walk into the restaurant and put you down, or a writer can judge you for using too much salt.”

Mr. Mylod said that recreating a modern fine-dining kitchen was surprisingly disturbing. Long hours, sexual harassment and verbal abuse are among the horrors inflicted by Chef Slowik and the system he represents. “We were reading the exposé as we were shooting,” he said of the New York Times’s reporting on the Willows , a restaurant on a remote island in Washington State.

“The people who work in that restaurant are expected to maintain this extraordinary level night after night,” he said. “I get to say ‘wrap’ at some point and go home, but they never seem to get that kind of break.”

It’s an extreme version of going out to dinner that only the world’s .01 percent has actually experienced. But the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures is betting that there’s now a wide audience familiar enough with these restaurants to enjoy the satire.

“This movie probably wouldn’t have happened without ‘Mind of a Chef’ and ‘Chef’s Table,’” said Mr. Tracy, the filmmaking team’s main food lover, referring to the behind-the-kitchen-door food shows that have been streaming successes for the last decade.

The “Menu” production hedged its bets by bringing on David Gelb, the creator of the “Chef’s Table” series, as second-unit director. His team’s job: to film Hawthorn in precisely the same style as the earlier shows, shooting lingering close-ups of blue flames, shining tweezers, herb gardens and perfectly arrayed dots of food.

“I am honored to have had a number of parodies of the work,” he said, citing the brilliant “ Juan Likes Rice and Chicken ,” a 2016 episode of the mockumentary series “Documentary Now!” that parodied “Chef’s Table.”

Mr. Gelb’s first film, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” held the seeds of the solemn respect accorded to modern chefs, by showing the extraordinary dedication that the Tokyo sushi chef Jiro Ono brings to each bite of nigiri: the octopus that must be massaged for at least 40 minutes, the rice that must be fanned by hand.

The possibility of controlling every detail of a meal feeds the genius, the worship and the madness of the chef, Mr. Gelb said. “That’s both the comedy — and the horror — of the film.”

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .

Julia Moskin , a Food reporter since 2004, writes about the restaurant industry, culinary trends and home cooking. She was part of the New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on workplace sexual harassment. More about Julia Moskin

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Menu, The (United States, 2022)

Perhaps the thing that makes The Menu so delicious is the taste that accompanies watching the ultra-rich get trussed up and stuffed like Thanksgiving turkeys. A dark satire that skewers privilege and eviscerates the famous, the wealthy, and professional critics (gulp), this film from prolific TV director Mark Mylod takes no prisoners. Although the focus is on (not surprisingly) the menu offered up by famed Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes at his most unhinged), this is no Babette’s Feast . There’s something about torture, bloodletting, and the potential for mass murder that dampens the appetite. Plus, the dishes served to the small group of a dozen diners don’t look all that appealing to begin with.

This isn’t the only movie of its sort exposing the venality and self-absorption of the 1%. It makes a perfect companion piece to Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness . Both films have similar goals and use twisted, Monty Python- inspired comedy to get the point across. The Menu comes with more star power than Triangle of Sadness . Although the latter boasts a sloshed Woody Harrelson, this one gives us established actors Ralph Fiennes, John Leguizamo, and Jane McTeer to go along with Nicholas Hoult and white-hot Anya Taylor-Joy. Sporting red hair and an intensity to match, Taylor-Joy goes toe-to-toe with Fiennes and never seems out of her depth. Their scenes together are some of the best moments The Menu has to offer.

The movie plays a little like an offbeat horror film without the horror vibe. One almost roots for the disillusioned and seemingly homicidal chef because most of his diners (with the exception of Taylor-Joy’s Margot) are so repugnant that watching them suffer seems like a good way to spend an hour and a half. Slowik is sympathetic because he embodies the average viewer’s disdain for the entitlement that suffuses the room.

The twelve attendees include two returning frequent diners, Richard (Reed Birney) and Anne (Judith Light); influential food critic Lillian (Janet McTeer) and her obsequious editor, Ted (Paul Edelstein); egocentric techies Soren (Arturo Castro), Bryce (Rob Yang), and Dave (Mar St. Cyr); a famous actor (John Leguizamo) and his assistant, Felicity (Aimee Carrero); foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date for the evening, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy); and Slowik’s mother (Rebecca Koon). Some, like Richard, Anne, and Tyler, crave the experience. Others, like Soren, Bryce, and Dave, are unimpressed by the pretentiousness of the cuisine. Still others, like Lillian and the actor, use this as an opportunity to show off. Only Margot seems out-of-place and, because her name wasn’t on the original list (Tyler switched dates at the last minute), she represents a fly in Slowik’s ointment. His meticulous plans for the evening didn’t include Margot.

Despite its focus on class issues, there’s no penetrating social commentary to be found in The Menu , which takes it for granted that the ultra-rich are ultra-absorbed and, as a result, deserve to be humiliated and brutalized. That’s where the fun lies and the filmmakers don’t clutter it up with political messaging. Everyone here is a stereotype, even the generally likeable Margot, who represents our portal through the looking glass. There’s a kind of wish fulfillment at work here to go along with a lot of tongue-in-cheek nastiness.

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The Menu (English)

Release date: 18 november, 2022, the menu (english) movie.

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Wicked Little Letters

When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that ... Read all When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate. When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.

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Trivia Although the actual events occurred in Littlehampton, the filming did not take place there. Instead nearby Arundel and Worthing were used. Arundel was used for town and street events. All the seaside filming was carried out in Worthing.
Goofs There are references to Rose's daughter been taken off her by the CPS; a modern organisation that begun in the 1980s.

[to her daughter, looking at the words Die Slut on her door]

Rose Gooding : It's German.

Connections Referenced in Amanda the Jedi Show: I ALMOST Walked Out | The Best and Worst of TIFF 2023 (2023)

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How to Watch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – Showtimes and Streaming Status

In theaters march 29..

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest movie in Legendary Pictures' and Warner Bros.' MonsterVerse. A sequel to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, The New Empire features the return of both eponymous Titans, who team up to take on a giant, orangutan-like villain named Skar King. You can check out our review of the film for more info.

If you're wondering how and where you can watch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire this weekend, take a look at the info below.

Where to Watch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – Showtimes and Streaming

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will be released in theaters on March 29 . To find when and where you can watch the movie near you, check the local showtime listings at the main theater sites below:

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Streaming Release Date

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will eventually be released on Max , rather than Netflix or Disney+.

As for a potential streaming release date for Godzilla x Kong, we can look to other recent releases from distributor Warner Bros. Warner's three latest movies to hit Max — Wonka, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Color Purple — came to streaming 84, 67, and 53 days after their theatrical debuts, respectively. Should Warner follow suit here, we'd expect Godzilla x Kong to land on the higher side of that release window, potentially putting it on Max sometime in June .

What Is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire About?

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a sequel to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. Here's the official synopsis from production company Legendary Pictures:

This latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins, and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.

How to Watch Godzilla vs. Kong

Those who want to watch or rewatch Godzilla vs. Kong ahead of the sequel can stream it on Max. If you don't have that subscription service, you can rent/buy the movie from various digital storefronts.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Cast

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was written by Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater. It was directed by Adam Wingard and stars the following actors:

Rebecca Hall as Ilene Andrews
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Kaylee Hottle as Jia
Alex Ferns as Mikael
Fala Chen as Iwi Queen
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Ron Smych as Harris

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Rating and Runtime

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is Rated PG-13 for creature violence and action. The film runs for a total of 1 hour and 55 minutes including credits.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

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Construction for the 1.6-mile Francis Scott Key Bridge started in 1972 and it opened on March 23, 1977.

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning after a support column was struck by a cargo ship, sending cars into the Patapsco River, launching a search-and-rescue operation and prompting Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to declare a state of emergency.

Here’s what you should know about the Key Bridge:

What is the history of the bridge’s name?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge is named for the writer behind “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The site of the bridge is believed to be within 100 yards of where Key saw the bombing of Fort McHenry Sept. 12, 1814, which inspired the poem that became the national anthem.

The battle at Fort McHenry was a key victory over British forces during the War of 1812. The American flag raised Sept. 14, 1814, celebrated the victory and inspired the words “broad stripes and bright stars” in Key’s song.

When did the bridge open?

Construction for the 1.6-mile bridge started in 1972, and it opened March 23, 1977.

In the 1960s, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel reached its traffic capacity, leading the state to conceive of and build the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the final link for the Baltimore Beltway (Interstate 695).

The bridge, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, is one of the longest continuous-truss bridges in the United States.

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Harry R. Hughes, then state secretary of transportation, was on hand to collect the first 75-cent toll.

The bridge arched over the Patapsco River from Hawkins Point, in Baltimore City, to Sollers Point, in Baltimore County.

The four-lane bridge, which soared 185 feet above the Fort McHenry Channel, the entranceway to the Baltimore Harbor, hosted 7,448 vehicles in its first 11 hours of operation.

Tolls were 75 cents for passenger cars and 50 cents an axle for trucks.

“For the first time, motorists will also be offered a dramatic panorama: not only of the downtown skyline, but Fort McHenry, Canton, the Inner Harbor, the hills of Catonsville, Towson’s high rises and the television tower near Druid Hill Park,” The Sun reported.

June 23, 1977-BREEZE-FILLED TOPSAIL--The Pride of Baltimore sails toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge on its way home. Photo by Sun photographer Lloyd Pearson. BDJ-705-BS

Workers eased into place yet another piece of the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Outer Harbor, which will link Sotters Point to Hawkins Point near Fort Carroll and complete the Beltway. Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun

Dundalk, Md--8/13/16--Aerial view of I-695 and the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun. #6029.

BALTIMORE, MD -- 12/31/08 -- KEY BRIDGE FOX -- The Key Bridge was closed to traffic because of an overturned truck. Lloyd Fox [Sun Photographer] #5981

Baltimore, MD-3/29/15--The Carnival Pride cruise ship passes under the Key bridge after leaving the Port of Baltimore Cruise Maryland Terminal. Today officials celebrated the return of year-round cruising from the port aboard the Carnival Pride. Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun-#9763.

Baltimore, Md -- 2/8/12 --md-coast-guard-eagle2-p-hairston--The Eagle, the US Coast Guard's training tall ship, passes under the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The ship leaves Baltimore after being in dry dock at the Coast Guard Yard for upgrades. The Eagle will return in June as it takes part in the commemoration of the War of 1812. Kim Hairston [The Baltimore Sun ]-#9515

Baltimore, MD -- 04/14/2016 -- Rebar is exposed and rusting while a driver waits for a traffic light to change beneath a train overpass that shows decades of wear as it crosses above Key Highway at the service road along the I-95 overpass which travels alongside the bridge. Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun (Frame# P4460067.JPG)

Baltimore, MD -- 6/13/12 -- md-sailabration-arrival-p04-davis -- Guayas, a 257-foot long training ship from Ecuador, front, followed by Cuauhtemoc of Mexico, and Dewaruci of Indonesia, sail past the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge toward Fort McHenry. The tall ships arrived in Baltimore Wednesday for the start of Star-Spangled Sailabration, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Amy Davis [Baltimore Sun Photographer] #7566

Baltimore, MD -- 06/13/2012 -- The tall Ship Cuauhtemoc of Mexico passes beneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge, heading to the inner harbor to highlight the official beginning of the Star Spangled Sailabration Wednesday, Jun 13, 2012. The event commemorates the 200th anniversary of of the War of 1812, which led to the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff) [STAR SPANGLED SAILABRATION KICKOFF (_1D34110.JPG)]

Date Created: 1976-09-22 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-06-07 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1974-12-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-11-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-07-07 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-05-22 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-08-11 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-02-19 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-06-05 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-02-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-07-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

BALTIMORE, MD--September 5, 1997--A silhoutted walker strolls the walkway along the harbor at Ft. McHenry. The Key Bridge is in the background. Staff photo/Doug Kapustin

DUNDALK, MD--April 18, 1997--The Queen Elizabeth II steams under the Francis Scott Key Bridge on it's way up the Patapsco River to the Dundalk Marine Terminal. Staff photo/Doug Kapustin

BALTIMORE, MD, JULY 25--BAD DAY AT THE RACES--Smoke billows from the engine and cockpit of a 39-foot Fountain race boat after the boat caught fire while racing in the Chesapeake Challenge on Baltimore Harbor this afternoon. The boat was towed back to the inner harbor and sustained major damage. In the background is the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

BALTIMORE, MD--June 29, 2000-- OPSAIL. A tall ship sails under the Key Bridge as it departs the Inner Harbor on it's way to the New York Harbor. Photo by Perry Thorsvik/staff

BALTIMORE, MD.--MAY 25, 2005--The Atlantic Cartier, a ship that sometimes carries nuclear materials into and out of the Port of Baltimore, passes under the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge on its way toward Dundalk Marine Terminal. This picture was shot from Hawkins Point at Fort Armistead Park. BALTIMORE SUN STAFF PHOTO BY KENNETH K. LAM

Date Created: 1977-03-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-03-09 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-08-29 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

BALTIMORE, MD-- AUG 8 1995--with the Key Bridge as backdrop Pres. Clinton talks about environmental safeguards at Ft.Armisted Park today with VP Gore in background. He vows to stop congress from rolling back laws on the books. (George W. Holsey/staff)

(12/19/2009) The snow covered Key Bridge was barren of traffic Saturday as a blizzard shut down the area. (Charles Funk, for the Maryland Gazette)

Sparrows Point, MD -- 2/3/12 --Aerial view of Sparrows Point and the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Kim Hairston [Baltimore Sun Staff]

Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1984-12-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1985-10-01 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-01-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-09-02 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge. 1975 Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-01-02 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-07-17 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE in 1974-12-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun

The steel bridge is one of the harbor’s three toll crossings and is located on the I-695 outer-harbor crossing. It’s part of a 10.9-mile Beltway span that includes a dual-span drawbridge over Curtis Creek and two parallel bridge structures carrying traffic over Bear Creek, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

How is the bridge used?

The bridge, which cost about $110 million in the 1970s, was seen as an efficient alternative because it has lower operating and maintenance costs, as well as more traffic lanes than the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.

The bridge carried more than 12.4 million commercial and passenger vehicles in 2023, according to a state government report issued in November.

The Key Bridge allows wide loads and hazardous material that can’t go through the Harbor Tunnel or Fort McHenry Tunnel. Currently, vehicles transporting hazardous materials are prohibited in tunnels and “should use the western section of I-695 around tunnels,” the transportation authority posted on social media.

What was the economic impact of the bridge?

With the collapse of the Key Bridge, one of Maryland’s major sources of revenue is at a halt.

The Port of Baltimore has created about 15,300 direct jobs and with nearly 140,000 jobs linked to port activities, according to a February statement from Moore, a Democrat.

Moore said in the statement that the port ranks first among those in the nation for volume of automobiles and light trucks, roll-on-roll-off heavy farm and construction machinery, and imported sugar and gypsum.

The Port of Baltimore handled 847,158 cars and light trucks last year, which led all other ports in the nation in its 13th consecutive year, according to the February release.

Baltimore Sun librarian Paul McCardell contributed to this article.

More in Local News

A 17-year-old boy shot near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore on Monday night was later declared dead at a hospital.

Crime and Public Safety | 17-year-old shot near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Monday night dies

Some 30,000 vehicles now need a new daily route as the loss of the Key Bridge impacts highway traffic around Baltimore.

Local News | Over 30,000 daily trips rerouted as Key Bridge closure alters Baltimore traffic

The two locations opened Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration aim to help merchants impacted by the closure of the Port of Baltimore.

Local News | SBA opens recovery centers in Dundalk and Canton to aid businesses affected by bridge collapse, port closure

See photos of salvage teams working on the Francis Scott Key Bridge on April 1, 2024.

Local News | Monday work around the Key Bridge | PHOTOS

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‘Wicked Little Letters’ Is Reason No. 347 That Olivia Colman Is a National Treasure

By David Fear

In the quiet little English hamlet of Littlehampton, someone has been sending out anonymous letters to their fellow townsfolk. Not just any types of greetings or wish-you-were-here correspondence circa the early 1920s, mind you. These unsigned missives say things like, “You foxy-ass old whore,” or “You dirty old bitch, you belong in hell, probably,” and “You suck 10 cocks a week, minimum.” These are some of the tamer ones, mind you. This epidemic of epistolary obscenities first began to show up at the door of one Edith Swan ( Olivia Colman ), a pious Christian woman who lives with her parents down the lane. Soon, everyone in town is receiving them, and a national furor erupts. Who is behind these poison-pen poems of profanity? Why are they doing this? And even keeping in mind that the slang of 100 years ago might give modern ears pause — what’s the deal with “foxy-ass?!”

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And rarely has an actor of such high caliber been given the opportunity to whisper, shriek and recite such toe-curdling phrases as “you bag of country-whore piss.” Long before she was thrice-nominated for Academy Awards and wowed international audiences with her mercurial regent in Poor Things (2019), Olivia Colman was one of British film and TV’s best-kept secrets. She’s always been the sort of versatile performer that could do broad innuendo-laden comedy ( Hot Fuzz ), trauma-based tragedy ( Tyrannosaur ), and toggle between filling a screen and supporting those who had the spotlight. (She’s also intimately familiar with the dynamic of small-town crimes and secrets, as anyone who knows her from the series Broadchurch could tell you.)

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The mystery behind who’s really scribbling these ornate, scatological haikus is actually the least interesting part of what’s happening onscreen; you’ll have guessed correctly long before Littlehampton’s Browning of bad words is revealed, though it does give the movie a good excuse to offer up a squad of amateur detectives. Police Officer Gladys Moss ( We Are Lady Parts ‘ Anjana Vasan, the film’s secret comic weapon) smells a rat when Rose is accused and arrested for the crime in record time. Initially poking around on her own, Moss soon enlists several of the local “misfit” ladies — read: they’re not condescending and compliant like Edith — to help sniff out the actual author of these atrocities. This is where the whimsy of Wicked Little Letters starts to become slightly too overwhelming, and threatens to tip the tonal balance over. The same can be said for the more melodramatic showdowns once Rose’s case goes to court.

Yet neither of these detours into zaniness or zealous handwringing can dampen the one thing that lies at the heart of Sharrock & Co.’s movie: a palpable sense of anger. Given the stifling social mores of the period and the toxic patriarchal attitudes — notably from Edith’s father, whose tantrums over being considered a “Nancy boy” suggest a lot of projected insecurity — it’s not a leap to see why Rose or Gladys bristle at the double standards on display. Indeed, the numerous scenes of “Woman Police Officer Moss” (a title that Rose posits is both obvious and useless) silently fuming and shuddering with anger over constantly being demeaned, underestimated, shoved aside or lectured at by incompetent boobs is nothing less than the film’s subtext poking through the text. Wicked may take great pains to recreate the musty Britain of the 1920s, but don’t be fooled by the cloche hats and frilly frocks. The female rage that powers every frame of this comedy didn’t go away when that decade ended. It’s regrettably more recognizable and still more righteous today one century later.

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The Menu movie review & film summary (2022)
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.
'The Menu' Review: Eat, Pray, Run!
Yet everyone is having such a good time, it's impossible not to join them. The movie's eye might be on haute cuisine, but its heart is pure fish and chips. The Menu. Rated R for slaying ...
The Menu
Mini Anthikad-Chhibber The Hindu. TOP CRITIC. 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 ...
The Menu review
F oodie films come in two flavours: joyous life-affirming celebrations of family, community and sharing (Babette's Feast, Big Night) or horrifying denunciations of consumerism and despair (La ...
The Menu Review
Posted: Sep 14, 2022 8:00 am. This is an advanced review out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Menu made its world premiere. It will hit theaters on Nov. 18, 2022. The Menu is ...
'The Menu' Review: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy in a Foodie Satire
Music: Colin Stetson. With: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, John Lequizamo, Reed Birney, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro, Mark ...
'The Menu' Review: A Deliciously Mean Satire of the Rich
movie review Yesterday at 3:34 p.m. A Sad-Eyed Josh O'Connor Goes Tomb-Raiding in the Lovely, Mysterious La Chimera Alice Rohrwacher's playful, rambling new film follows a man who robs graves ...
The Menu review
The guests at his culinary temple, run with a cult-like devotion by the ferocious front of house manager Elsa (Hong Chau), are a tasteless bunch: a trio of braying investment bankers, a needy ...
'The Menu' Is a Delicious F--k You to Foodies, the Rancid Rich
Three finance-bro stooges (Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr and Rob Yang) sit next to a fading movie star (John Leguizamo) and his put-upon assistant (Aimee Carrero). Over by the entryway, there's an ...
The Menu review: Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes ...
This review was first published in conjunction with The Menu's premiere at the 2022 Fantastic Fest.It has been updated for the movie's HBO Max release. One of the most-discussed movie scenes ...
The Menu Review: Subversive Dark Comedy About Food & Privilege
Thankfully, the film is so slick and well acted, it never reaches that level. Hoult is an annoying ass, and you love him for it. Taylor-Joy is intense and commanding, and Ralph Fiennes is, well ...
The Menu (2022)
The Menu: Directed by Mark Mylod. With Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau. 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.
The Menu review: an unpredictable and viciously funny thriller
The Menu. "The Menu is a scathing, satirical thriller that makes it easy to get lost in the power of Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy's lead performances.". The Menu is a charbroiled ...
The Menu Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Menu is a horror comedy about a couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) dining at an exclusive, high-end restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has something sinister cooking.It's a very satisfying combination of shocks, laughs, and ideas, and it's recommended to mature foodies. Expect gory moments, including blood spatters, a gunshot to the head, a severed ...
'The Menu' Ending, Explained
In The Menu, r enowned chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) meticulously crafts a dining experience tailored to 11 of the restaurant's patrons—but the unexpected appearance of Margot (Anya Taylor ...
The Menu
17 Nov 2022. Original Title: The Menu. Mark Mylod 's The Menu begins as a dressing-down of opulence before transforming into a trashy genre thriller, veering between delightfully silly, and just ...
The Menu Is Not What You Expect— It's Better
The question remains whether this is going to become a vomit-fest like the recent Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness or something supernaturally devilish like the horror movie Ready or Not ...
The Menu (2022) Movie Review
Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here! Verdict - 8.5/10. 8.5/10. 8.5/10. Categories films, horror, thriller Tags 2023, Anya Taylor-Joy, Arnav Srivastava, comedy, films, Hong Chau, horror, movies, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Fiennes, thriller. 1 thought on "The Menu (2022) Movie Review - A high concept of class with humor served on ...
The Menu (2022 film)
The Menu is a 2022 American black comedy film directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo.It follows a foodie and his date traveling to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu ...
'The Menu' Movie Serves Fine Dining on a Skewer
An amuse-bouche served on the boat to the private island — an oyster with lemon caviar — is a reference to a signature dish from the real-world chef Thomas Keller. Searchlight Pictures. In one ...
Menu, The
This isn't the only movie of its sort exposing the venality and self-absorption of the 1%. It makes a perfect companion piece to Ruben Ostlund's Triangle of Sadness. Both films have similar goals and use twisted, Monty Python- inspired comedy to get the point across. The Menu comes with more star power than Triangle of Sadness.
The Menu (English) Review
The Menu (English) Film Review: Know More about Upcoming Movie Reviews, New Movie Rating, Film Review and Movie Release Date. Skip to content Bollywood Entertainment at its best
The Menu (English) Movie: Review
Read More The Menu (English) news and music reviews (2022). Find out what is The Menu (English) box office collection till now. Download HD images, photos, wallpapers of The Menu (English) movie.
Wicked Little Letters (2023)
Wicked Little Letters: Directed by Thea Sharrock. With Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Timothy Spall, Jason Watkins. When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local Edith--begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.
How to Watch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest movie in Legendary Pictures' and Warner Bros.' MonsterVerse. A sequel to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, The New Empire features the return of both ...
History of Baltimore's Key Bridge: What to know
Harry R. Hughes, then state secretary of transportation, was on hand to collect the first 75-cent toll. The bridge arched over the Patapsco River from Hawkins Point, in Baltimore City, to Sollers ...
'Wicked Little Letters' Review: Olivia Colman Is a National Treasure
The British actor virtually strolls away with this droll comedy about a small English town plagued with a gloriously profane poison-pen letter writer. 'Wicked Little Letters' Review: Olivia Colman ...

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‘The Menu’ Review: Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy in a Restaurant Thriller That Gives Foodie Culture the Slicing and Dicing It Deserves

Owen Gleiberman

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 106 MIN.

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