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Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Fiennes, John Leguizamo, Judith Light, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer
OUR RATING: ★★★★☆
Story:
Dark horror comedy directed by Mark Mylod. The Menu (2022) centers on a couple, Margot and Tyler (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult), who travel to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant run by celebrity chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), who has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'There is no way to avoid the mess. The mess you make of your life, of your body, of your sanity, by giving everything you have to pleasing people you will never know.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Tyler: Babe. Please don’t smoke. It’ll kill your palate.
Margot: Then my palate will die happy.
Margot: How do they turn a profit?
Tyler: Twelve-fifty a head, that’s how.
Margot: You’re f***ing kidding, right? What, are we eating, a Rolex?
Tyler: It’s official. Tonight will be madness.
Tyler: The lemon pearls are made with alginate.
Margot: Alginate, as in…
Tyler: As in algae.
Margot: Right. Yeah. Pond scum. Delicious.
Tyler: You need the mouthfeel of the mignonette.
Margot: Please don’t say “mouthfeel”.
Tyler: Too late. Mouthfeel.
Elsa: Margot. Welcome. We’ll endeavor to make your evening as pleasant as possible.
Margot: We have reached the base camp of Mount Bulls**t. This is insane.
Dave: [after they’ve been told that the meat is aged for 152 days] So, what happens if you serve it on the hundred and fifty-third day? Does all hell break loose, or…
Elsa: Well, I suppose the bacteria would introduce itself to the consumer’s bloodstream and spread into their spinal membranes, after which point, he or she would become incapacitated, and shortly thereafter expire. So, yes. All hell would break loose.
'Taste. Savor. Relish. Consider every morsel that you place inside your mouth. Be mindful. But do not eat.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Elsa: We harvest. We ferment. We slaughter. We marinate. We liquify. We spherify. We gel.
Margot: [to Tyler] They gel?
Elsa: We gel!
Soren: You guys ever get burned out, or…
Elsa: “Burned out?”
Soren: Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Like tired of doing the same thing?
Elsa: Chef holds himself to the highest standard, and so do we. We never burn anything unless by design, to make delicious.
Tyler: Chefs, they play with the raw materials of life itself. And death itself.
Tyler: It’s art on the edge of the abyss, which is where God works too. It’s the same.
Chef Slowik: Good evening. Welcome to Hawthorne. I’m Julian Slowik, and tonight it’ll be our pleasure to feed you. Over the next few hours, you will ingest fat, salt, sugar, protein, bacteria, fungi, various plants and animals. And at times, entire ecosystems. But I have to beg of you one thing. It’s just one. Do not eat. Taste. Savor. Relish. Consider every morsel that you place inside your mouth. Be mindful. But do not eat. Our menu is too precious for that. And look around you. Here we are, on this island. Accept. Accept all of it. And forgive. And on that note, food!
'Bread. It is, and has always been, the food of the common man.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Chef Slowik: What happens inside this room is meaningless compared to what happens outside in nature, in the soil, in the water, in the air. We are but a frightened nanosecond. Nature is timeless. Enjoy.
Margot: [to Tyler] That’s a cheery thought.
Margot: Are you crying?
Tyler: It’s just that I find it all very moving. It’s all so beautiful. It’s almost too beautiful to eat.
Margot: [referring to Slowik] Tyler, you’re the customer. You’re paying him to serve you. It doesn’t really matter whether he likes you or not.
Tyler: Right. Wait. What does that mean?
Margot: Nothing. Relax. Just eat your rock.
Lillian: The flavors are there. It’s very clean. It’s very thalassic.
Ted: Thalassic?
Lillian: Oceanic.
'Maybe there are some rules that you should give a f*** about. Like, I don't know, giving food to people at a restaurant.' - Margot (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Lillian: We’re eating the ocean.
Ted: We’re eating the ocean.
Margot: [referring to Slowik clapping his hands] Is he going to keep doing that?
Felicity: Not going to serve bread at a restaurant known for their bread. That’s sweet.
Movie Star: I got to say that the s**t around the total absence of the bread is like really good.
Ted: I mean, it’s a little outrageous, isn’t it?
Lillian: It’s fiendish, really.
'Sometimes all you need is a good cup of tea.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Tyler: The game is trying to guess what the overarching theme of the entire meal is going to be. You won’t know until the end.
Tyler: He’s telling a story. That’s what makes his food so exciting. He’s not just a chef. He’s a storyteller. And he doesn’t give a f*** about the rules.
Margot: Call me the girl next door, but maybe there are some rules that you should give a f*** about. Like, I don’t know, giving food to people at a restaurant.
Tyler: Dearest, no one would ever call you the girl next door.
Elsa: [to Soren] You will eat less than you desire, and more than you deserve. It’s a pleasure to serve you.
Chef Slowik: You haven’t touched your food
Margot: There is no food.
Chef Slowik: Well, no. This is food.
'We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Chef Slowik: Please eat. The menu only makes sense if you eat.
Margot: But you told us not to eat.
Chef Slowik: That is not what I meant, madam. And you know it.
Chef Slowik: The next course is called Memory. And that is what it’s meant to evoke. A memory.
Chef Slowik: [referring to his father, who beat his mother] Now, I suppose I should’ve stabbed him in the throat that evening. But we’re not so smart when we’re young. It was, as you can imagine, as a very memorable taco night.
'I thought tonight was a night of hard home truths. This is one of them. You cook with obsession, not love.' - Margot (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Elsa: These are tortillas, which contain EchoBrite’s tax records, and other documents, showing how your company has created invoices with fake charges.
Bryce: How did you get these?
Elsa: I’m sorry, but Chef never reveals his recipes.
Soren: Do you know how f***ed you are? We’ll have this place closed by the morning. Do you understand?
Elsa: Oh, no. That won’t be necessary. Enjoy.
Soren: It’s a f***ing taco. Okay? It can’t hurt you.
Bryce: Yeah, a f***ing taco that might hold up in court.
'We must be cleansed. Made clean. Like martyrs, or heretics, we can be subsumed and made anew.' - Chef Slowik (The Menu) Click To Tweet
Tyler: Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get a reservation here?
Margot: No, and I don’t really care.
Tyler: You do not send s**t back to this kitchen, you child. You thank them for even letting you in the door.
Margot: You cannot speak to me that way.
Tyler: Actually, I can because, ding dong, I’m the one who’s paying. So maybe, shut up and eat.
Trailer: