Yes, Chef

In our search for Ms. Spenser's type of horror, we considered The Menu (2022), but weren't sure. Once our nephew assured us that there was no actual cannibalism, we decided to give it a try.

It starts with the guests to a super-exclusive restaurant assembling on a dock. In particular, we meet Nicholas Hoult, a somewhat Shkreli-looking type and his "girlfriend", Ana Taylor-Joy. Hoult is in ecstasy over the upcoming experience, and Taylor-Joy is not. The hostess, Hong Chau, notes that Taylor-Joy is not the guest that Hoult had signed up to bring. We later learn that his first date broke up with him, and that Taylor-Joy is a hired escort.

The boat arrives at the restaurant's private island, its beaches littered with driftwood roots. Chau gives them a tour, including the cooks barracks. Their life looks pretty austere and cult-like, and Chau is professionally welcoming, but very cold and controlling.

At the modern restaurant building, they guests are seated, and we overhear their conversations. They include John Leguizano, as a washed-up actor in the mold of, say, Mickey Rourke, and his PR person/personal assistant. There is a table of three finance bros, who have been supporting the restaurant. There's an old rich couple who have been there more than once. There's a food critic and her agent. There's a very drunk old lady, who turns out to be chef's mother. 

Chef himself is Ralph Fiennes. He speaks warmly, poetically about the food he serves. But he does have an overbearing style. Hoult loves all this, although he keeps taking cellphone pics of the food, which is strictly forbidden. But the second course, the bread, has a twist. Since bread is for the common man, and these diners are anything but common, they will get no bread, just the spreads. Hoult is in raptures over this twist, but Taylor-Joy understands that they are being intentionally insulted. But that's nothing compared to the next course.

I won't spoil the rest, except to let you know that it gets deadly, then deadlier. No one is expected to leave the island alive. But for a long while, the guests take it in stride. Maybe the violence is faked - just stagecraft. Anyway, the food is still delicious. But the taco course has the guests sins laser-burnt into the tortillas - custom for each guest, except for Taylor-Joy, who wasn't supposed to be here. Will she die like a guest, or, as a working girl, should she be part of the staff?

It's pretty easy to see the social trends that this movie criticizes and satirizes: Celebrity chefs, foody culture, Instagram experiences, social inequality, and so on. It does this very well. The guests (villains or victims? Both?) are more that a bit stereotyped, but that's to be expected. I actually liked Leguizano's actor. He was a blowhard and a "name-dropping whore", and pretty clueless. But he takes a simple pleasure in the food, and I think he's the only one. 

Hoult's role is kind of interesting. I think he is well suited to playing nerdy creeps or creepy nerds. Although this role and Beast in the X-Men series are the only roles I can think of off the top of my head.

In conclusion. Ms. Spenser's reaction to this was to never want to eat again. It kind of made me hungry.