The Menu movie review: Ralph Fiennes serves rich and cynical chef with a hint of cruelty
in the Netflix show chef’s tableMaster chefs take the perfect foam, yeast, vegetables and carrots, do unspeakable things with sea urchins, sow a duck and a chicken together and roast them in hay.
It’s all pretty unsightly, the top of the craze to watch delicious meals begins with shows like Super ChefAspiring culinary adventures are often followed by people who need a compass to find their own kitchen.
These people who want to be ‘gourmets’ are the obvious target of MenuMark Mylod’s delightfully cynical thriller Guignol unfolds on a quiet jetty, where a group of clients with different powers board a ship bound for Hawthorne, a remote island home to one of the many houses. The most luxurious products in the world.
Driven by resident genius and chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) with an iron, Hawthorne charges punters $1,250 a head for a multi-course ‘tasting menu’ (as if there were any any other), prepared with locally sourced animals and vegetables.
It’s not quite a restaurant but a theater: diners sit in a semicircle around an open kitchen teeming with servants, which becomes a sort of stage during service.
At its center is Chef Slowik, a fierce and intimidating figure who speaks with unsettling precision, while clapping and speaking before each outrageous dish.
Those courses range from silly to ridiculous: a single scallop obscured by sponges, a plate of bread and dipping sauce that was destroyed by removing the bread.
However, a small detail happens to only the smartest guests: they happen to be stranded on an island, where there is no way out.
And as the meal progresses, it becomes clear that Chef Slowik knows who all the diners are and may not be entirely sympathetic to them.
Our protagonist in all of this, and the voice of proletarian reason, is Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), Tyler’s (Nicholas Hoult) last-minute guest, a foodie with a lot of money. rather than meaning.
While he was mesmerized by Chef Slowik’s mere presence, Margot looked up to the sky to the fanfare of it all, and wondered if and when a plate of food would actually appear.
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Other guests include snobby food critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer), who is dining with a stooping journalist, a trio of obnoxious tech executives, a hacking actor (John Leguizamo) ) and a businessman (Reed Birney) with a sketchy personality. life.
Their various moral shortcomings are about to be solved by Chef Slowik and his fearsome army of underlings through the medium of food, and when the mood turns violent, only Margot is quick-witted enough to realize it. out danger.
Fine dining has become too conceited in recent years, but Mylod’s real aim here is the privilege, entitlement and antics of the wealthy global elite who support the green initiatives as long as they don’t interfere with their jet lifestyle.
Mylod, who directed several episodes of heirhave a keen ear for comedy and MenuThe mood of lying somewhere between a Pull out the knife movies and one of the class-conscious horror films of the 1970s like Blood Drama.
Chef Slowik may have something sinister in mind for visitors, but it’s hard to feel sorry for his smug customers, who are evenly obnoxious to the point of being almost caricatured at times.
Fiennes is too good an actor to be able to act into anything predictable, and although it’s clear from the start that Chef Slowik is a certified chestnut, Fiennes brings him to We have a greasy, fragile charm that makes viewers as well as diners fall into the wrong feeling. Guard. “Don’t eat,” he whispers to his audience, “try it,” referring to the basic folly of this type of cuisine, treating the essentials of life as accessories of the times. Page.
Fiennes’ comedic brushstrokes are delightful, and the scenes he shares with Taylor-Joy’s tough and sly Margot are fascinating.
Rating: Four stars
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Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb in Armageddon Time
Apocalypse (15A, 115 minutes)
James Gray’s coming-of-age story is a movie that has a lot to say. It’s set in Queens in 1980, when the specter of the Reagan presidency looms, and 11-year-old Paul Graff (Banks Repeta) is in trouble while in sixth grade at his state school.
As a friendship forms with Johnny (Jaylin Webb), Paul notices how unfairly his teachers treat him because he is black. The pair are caught smoking marijuana in the hallway and Paul is sent away and sent to an elite private school.
His Jewish parents (Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong) have gradually earned the respect of the middle class and do not want to let their dreamy and artistic young son embarrass them. But at his new school, where the main benefactor is the delinquent Fred Trump, Donald’s father, Paul is appalled by the racism and rights of his classmates.
Gray’s film makes a clear connection between the laissez-faire economy of Reagan-era America and the rise of Donald. Though loose in the middle, it’s touching and humorous, and Anthony Hopkins sets the stage for the work as Paul’s wise grandfather.
Rating: Four stars
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Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal on vacation in Aftersun
Afternoon sunshine (15A, 102 minutes)
Scottish director Charlotte Wells’ feature film debut is an enchanting meditation on memory, trauma and guilt.
In the 1990s, divorced father Calum (Paul Mescal) goes to Turkey on a frugal vacation with his underage daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio). They seem close and hang out by the pool, eat, sleep, and even go to discos together, where Calum tortures his daughter with his dad’s moves.
He also, with questionable wisdom, lets her hang out with a group of older teenagers discovering the joys of alcohol and tobacco. But Sophie seems to be able to take care of herself and we end up worrying about Calum.
He seems sad, almost down, and as the holiday progresses, it takes on an air of grim finality. But there’s another layer of the story because all of this is being remembered by adult Sophie in the present, who has recalled the holiday so many times that her memories have become worn out and fuzzy.
sundown is a little gem – restrained, refined, sweet melancholy and the interaction between Mescal and Corio has an unmistakable truth.
Rating: Four stars
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