It was Friday cinema night and tonight's new release was 'The Menu'. A dark horror comedy by director Mark Mylod, which picks apart the pretentious super-rich dining experience with relish.
It's funny, chilling, shocking, has you completely off kilter and feeling uneasy throughout. Drawn in, as if one of the diners too, unsure of what is performance art and what is real. It turns out it's very real, but the dark humour, which is often unexpected and very funny, provides regular relief in between the tension, which ever-so slowly builds during the first part. The set, just one room, provides enough variety but also that claustrophobic feeling of being trapped.
The 'lucky' guests all have their dark secrets, which are revealed along the way, from the restaurant critic and her 'hanger on' to the self-obsessed former movie star and his assistant and the couple we're first introduced to, Nicholas Hoult's obsessed fan of the chef and a 'foodie' and his date, played by the always fantastic Anya Taylor-Joy.
Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik, has the audience just about jumping to attention whenever he reveals the next course. Both he and Anya have such presence, they just command your attention whenever they're on screen. One particular exchange towards the end is breath-taking. It's simple, funny and very effective.
Throughout this absolute delight of a film, I was completely absorbed and transfixed by the world I'd been transported to and the story I felt invested in. I love it when a film does that. Superb. 😊
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