The Menu!! Let's Talk About!!!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog!

I hope you are having a wonderful day!

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted on here, but I am making it a goal of mine to post more this year and get more content out because I absolutely love doing this! So, if anyone has any movies, TV shows, books, or video games that I can review please let me know! Leave a comment down below!

Now let's get into it.

The Menu. This movie came out in 2022, directed by Mark Mylod (who also worked on Game of Thrones and Shameless) and also has a lot of talented actors in it; like Ralph Fiennes (for all my Harry Potter Fans), Nicholas Hoult (for all my new generation X-Men fans), and Aimee Carrero (for all my Young and Hungry fans). This movie has a pretty good line up of actors in it, but it's also not too overloaded to where the focus of the movie is lost because of the actors in it. If you are seeing this movie, you are seeing it because you really want to see it, not because of who is in it.

Doing the summary of this movie is going to be extremely hard to do without spoiling the entire movie for you so I will do the best that I can to try and leave a little bit of a surprise to the movie for you.

********SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!********

(I will not include all of the details of the movie but will provide a brief summary so there is still some sort of surprise to some of the events that happen in the movie if you decide to go watch it. )

This movie starts off seeing a couple, Tyler and Margot, at a dock talking and flirting, a boat arrives, and they board along with other guests who look like they are in the upper class. They get to a secluded island where they are greeted by name as they all arrive. They are given a short tour of the areas that they visit while they make their way to a building where they will be dining.

They are seated and the menu begins with different courses, perfectly planned and prepared as they enjoy each meal. We learn that the Chef Slowik, who is in charge of their dining experience has everything planned out meticulously for them. His introduction to each course is unsettling and eerie as he lets the guests know what they are eating and how it was prepared. Everything seems fine...until the third course comes and then the movie takes a turn and exposes each guests' darkest secrets in a creative way. At this point in the movie, you can tell that each guest is there for a reason and later on we find out why they were invited to the island.

The fourth course is where things really start to take a turn for the worst when one of the sous-chefs is brought out to the floor. Chef gives him a degrading introduction and then after a few minutes of an unsettling introduction the sous-chef kills himself right there in front of everyone. The guests react like any normal person would, horrified and shaken up, while Chef and his staff remain unaffected by what just happened. Some of the guests try to leave but Chef immediately makes it very clear that none of them are leaving the island. Each guest tries to flaunt their statues in society to try and convince Chef to let them leave but is met with another response by Chef and his associates when they drown the owner of the island and restaurant right in front of their eyes. Chef makes it immunity clear that he does not care who you are or what you do, in his world you are all the same......and they are all scum to him.

The fifth course is introduced with a glimmer of hope when he tells all of the men that if they can escape the island before being caught, they will be free to go. Of course, none are successful and are brought back to the dining hall where Chef continues to serve them the next course. Chef lets each guest know that they are the sole reason as to why he has lost his touch with his passion of cooking. They do not appreciate what he does, and they can only set foot in his restaurant because they have the money to do so. Chef tells everyone that no one will be leaving the island that night, not even the staff after what he has planned for them.

The only person who isn't supposed to be there is Margot, she was brought by Tyler at last minute. Chef knows this and he talks with her saying that he knows that she is not one of them and that she should die with his team instead of the imposters in his dining room. He gives her a few chances to die with them instead of the others and she still returns to the dining room. While given these chances she learns more about Chef that gives her the upper hand advantage to try and survive.

As the final course, dessert, is about to be served Margot stands up and says that she is still hungry. She challenges Chef in a way that he has not been challenged in a very long time. He is forced to go back to his roots and remember why he started cooking in the first place. He brings her the dish that she requested and then she asks for it to-go and she is allowed to leave. She is the only survivor of the night.

The movie ends with Chef serving dessert, smores. He sets the place on fire while Margo watches the place burn.

Finishing this movie, I was shocked to say the least. Going into this I knew this movie was going to be crazy from some of the reviews I had seen about it, but I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I obviously knew I was watching a horror movie, but I had no idea what type of one I was watching. This movie borders on cult horror/comedy horror. But the whole time my jaw was just constantly dropping.

Let's talk about some of the characters that stood out to me while watching this movie, that I am sure also stood out to you as well. These are the characters that I wish I knew more back story on before they got to the point that they were at in the movie.

First let's start with Chef Slowik. This man started off as a line cook at a local burger spot in his hometown and ended up finding out what he was passionate about in life. The turned his life around and became one of the most respected and sought after chefs in the entire world. How he went from doing everything he did through his shear passion to want to end it all the way that he did escapes my imagination. But after seeing some of the people that he served at his restaurant I could see where people exploited his passion and corrupted it his love for his craft. The only people that were able to access his cooking was if they had money. Normal people like you and I would never be able to come within 10 miles of this man and his restaurant. I think that is where he went wrong in doing all of this. He started out his restaurant wanting to give people the experience of his cooking, but the only ones who could see that weren't the people who would truly appreciate his cooking and see how spectacular his craft really was. His passion quickly turned from loving what he did to obsessing with bringing down the despicable people who sat at his tables.

Now speaking of obsession let's talk about Tyler. This man was obsessed with Chef Slowik. He wanted to experience his cooking because he was passionate about cooking and what Chef did. He loved the way that he cooked like no one else, he loved the way Chef made dining with him an experience. But he quickly turned out to be just like all the other people who were there with bringing Margot there knowing that everyone was going to die at the end of their dining experience. He wanted to be just like Chef but with his obsession in doing so he corrupted his own morals and became just a guilty of doing unspeakable things like the rest of the guests there.

Then let's not forget about our final girl Margot. She was never even supposed to be there in the first place. She was drug along by Tyler in the hopes of a nice meal and then to go home at the end of the night with leftovers wrapped up in tin foil shaped like a swan. She was thrown into this situation because of her line of work. She was honestly one of the most innocent people in the room and because of Tyler's obsession she was thrown into a situation where she was never supposed to go home at the end of the night. She had absolutely nothing to gain in the situation like the rest of the guests dining with her that night. Yet she was the only one who could think logically enough to make Chef see that she didn't deserve to have the same fate as the others who were there.

This post is definitely on the shorter side of things, compared to some of the other posts I have made. This movie doesn't have much for me to research on in terms of lore and back story. This movie is original and raw and just fantastic in my opinion. It cuts deep into the message of not letting the world break you from your passions and what you love. You should do them because you love to do it, not because someone expects you to do it for them.

As always, I will end this post with a quote from the movie by Margo,

"You cook with obsession, not love."

She threw in his face his greatest accomplishment and greatest weakness. There is an absolutely powerful message in this movie. Don't let the world have such a hard impression on what you love to do. Do what you love and do it unapologetically. The world will always try to take something from you, don't let it take your passion and drive to do what you love to do.