THE MENU (2022) dir. Mark Mylod

Interesting Deleted Scenes/Details from The Menu

Lillian wasn't completely exaggerating when she said she put Chef on the map: He had another high end restaurant before Hawthorne, called Tantalus. Got 2 Michelin stars 2 years in, then closed up shop. Isn't heard from again until 3 years later, running a taco truck in Portland. He agreed to the interview only if he could keep his privacy, his own land, and it had to be by the water so he could source his own fish.

It's established the movie star has a peanut allergy during the tour, and this turns out to be setup for the menu's eighth course, where Felicity is ordered to force feed him a dish completely comprised of peanuts so as to kill him through anaphylactic shock.

Anne (wife of man who paid Margot to look like his daughter while jacking him off) actually couldn't eat The Island as is due to a shellfish allergy. Hers was salmon.

The broken emulsion gag escalates to where the servers literally waterboard Lillian with it.

The restaurant has hidden cameras in the dining room, so even if Elsa missed something, it still got caught.

The taco truck Chef was running was, according to him, the happiest he'd ever been, but Margot call him out on it later, asking why he parked his truck at a Food Expo where he KNEW food critics were going to be, if he wanted to be left alone.

Man's Folly was supposed to have more details about a woman chef's actual experience in the kitchen, from harassment to stereotypes.

The women DO get bread with Man's Folly, and it IS as delicious as promised. You can even see Tyler chewing on bread when Chef comes up to confront him afterwards.

Not only did Tyler bring Margot knowing she would die, he sincerely thought Chef was going to spare him. And even when called out on it, he STILL didn't apologize or take it back, because all he cared about was experiencing the menu.

Them all coming to the kitchen to watch Tyler screw himself over wasn't originally in the script. They were just supposed to watch from the dining room.

Margot makes another bid for her life before being ordered to go get the barrel. Which Chef appreciates enough to tell her so.

Margot smiles upon seeing Tyler's hanging.

Lillian realizes she's never going to get to write about this last experience, and THAT ends up being her real just desserts.

Instead of dropping the ashes to set it all on fire, Chef originally drops a match.

We never found out Margot's true fate. The boat literally stopped a half mile away, so she was stuck there.

The last scene is of firefighters combing through the burnt wreckage, and the very last thing we see is the one photo of Chef as a young man, flipping a burger, but happy.

My favorite part in The menu (2022) was when The chef decided to kill a girl because she went to Brown without student loan

I watched The Menu today and it was probably one of the best movies I have seen in a while.  There are many themes going on within the film, the philosophy of giving and taking, the tension between those who serve and those who are served, how something that was once considered a passion can be twisted into obsession, but one thing that I think really stuck out to me was the Female Chef.  I forget her name sadly (which considering the themes of the film, the alienation of the worker, is a touch ironic) but what strikes me is that the whole concept of the menu, the idea that everyone should die at the end, is her idea. 

She starts her dish with a personal story about how she was abused and sexually harassed by The Chef himself, how after she refused his advances he refused to acknowledge her or even talk to her for weeks.  Many female chefs in the workplace could probably relate to this story, how men in positions of power exploit the women working underneath them, how even if they refuse it can still harm them and their careers.  She in her dish is able to get some revenge, by stabbing him in the thigh. The same thing that The Chef did to his father when he was attacking his mother.  When the male customers run off she goes and sits with the female customers who eat the actual meal.  When she breaks down crying none of the women give her any actual sympathy, they only tell her that the dish is delicious, that she is talented.  They only praise her for what she is able to provide, her craft, but fail to see her as a human.  When the critic tries to barter with her she reveals that, while she may not have created the entire menu, the idea that they all must die is her pitch.  That it must happen to tie everything together. 

Despite the fact that the whole concept of The Menu being her idea, that the overall arching theme of death being her pitch, it’s still The Chef’s masterpiece, not hers.  The Chef at the end of the film calls himself a monster.  And he is one.  Not only has he lost any love for his work, he has abused and mistreated his fellow chefs, and now they have no love for their work either.  You can point to many reasons for this transformation, the treatment of workers, the ways that the industry props up abusers who never receive any consequences, how capitalism forces restaurants to get “better and better” but what that really means is get more expensive.  But ultimately The Chef is still a person, and ugly person who has done harm to those around him.  But he doesn’t want to, or really he doesn’t mean to cause harm.  It makes sense that for his final act, his last dish as a chef is a common cheap dessert that anyone can make, the smore.  And as he, the chefs, the customers, are about to die he says to them “I love you”.  And they say it right back.  

I'd really love a version of "The Menu" from Judith Light's character's perspective.

She's just going about her business, going to dinner with her shitty husband again. There's a girl there that kind of looks like her daughter and she is like, "Doesn't she look like Claire?" and the husband shuts her down, so it's back to eating in silence.

Then the toritllas delicioso (should it be 'a?) come. And she realizes that very girl she thought looked like her daughter? Is an escort. And her husband cheated on her with this escort.

Who looks like their daughter.

We see Erin/Margot tell Chef about how the Husband (I refuse to learn his name) rattled her, by making her pretend to be the daughter.

But we never see the realization really, in the Wife about how gross he is. How much does she guess?

And there's that great moment where they cut off his finger and then give her his ring back, like this is totally normal. What does she do with the ring? Does she wear it? Put it in her purse?

The moment when all the women get to sit around the table togetehr to wait for the men? She tries to make the sous chef feel better when she cries and is like "I don't usually like... foam." I don't know if that is genuine sympathy or her trying to ingratiate herself, but it's not as obviously about trying to save herself as the food writer's ploy.

We know by the end that she has given up fighting it. She says "thank you" when Chef lights the fire to "make them clean."

But I want to know when she bought into it. Was like, "Well, this is happening."

I also, and I've said this before, really like that she gives Margot a "shoo" motion with her hand. She doesn't hold the cheating against the service worker, and that's the opposite of how a lot of women respond. Maybe she knows her husband is gross. Maybe she does see her daughter in Margot ("that same faraway face") and is happy that she played the game well enough that she can escape.

Or maybe she just knows that they were all invited there for a reason except Margot, who is just a victim of Tyler, and sees how unfair that is to punish her for the sins of a man who hired her.

little things in The Menu (2022) that I liked:

it ends with the sound of Chef Slowik Making The Clap (tm)

chasers rewarding that guy in hen house with an Egg Dish

Margot making The Entrance with the barrel

entire dynamic between Elsa and that one finance bro (who cheated on his gf Amber, that one)

"Can we have bread?" "No" exchange

Erin wiping her lips with the menu from the gift bag :)

sommelier having a laugh when he saw The Owner in angel wings

(also love how he's body language had a little bit of twirl when he was spilling wine during the dessert scene)

"Do you have student loans?" "No" "Then you die"

the reveal of why Chef Slowik invited that Actor dude (lmaooooo)

Lillian (the food critic) asking who wants more wine and all women immediately jumping on that train 'cause things got awkward and they need to change the topic skskhkjl

"I stole money from you" "I know" " I know you know" exchange

The Wife urging Margot to leave with hand gesture

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY THE MENU (2022) dir. Mark Mylod

something about how tyler wants to be the chef but he doesn't want to put the effort. he can watch everything and he can buy everything because ofc he's rich, but that's all that matters. he thinks he can achieve that excellence, or rather he has achieved it because he has the knowledge

he deserves the special courses. he deserved that the chef loved him, because he knows. and he's special. because for him this unique experience is for him. he is the one its constructed for, the special child, the chosen one.

he knows that everyone will die on that island, yet he still brings margot to it. because, the poor, they are there for you to exploit, for you to achieve what you want, a step in a ladder. because you are special. and how dare the world doesn't allow you to be that. how dare there be rules. how dare the poor not see it like you do. that this was all made for you to relish. because they, the poor they only know how to eat, you YOU know how to taste, how to savour, how to enjoy.

it doesn't matter that he didn't do anything to work for it. because he can buy the experience. because he can boil it down to the basics without ever understanding what it meant. and the worst thing, that he thinks there's no difference between the two

THE MENU 2022, directed by Mark Mylod

THE MENU (2022) + food

Between The Menu and Glass Onion, 2022 was really the year of setting fire to an island full of entitled and pretentious rich people

Come on, Chef. I thought tonight was a night of hard home truths. This is one of them. You cook with obsession, not love. Even your hot dishes are cold. You're a chef. Your single purpose on this Earth is to serve people food that they might actually like, and you have failed. You have failed. And you've bored me. And the worst part is I'm still fucking hungry.

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY as Margot in THE MENU (2022) dir. Mark Mylod

spoilers for the menu but i've just realised that tyler was taking pictures of all his food even though he fully knew he was gonna die.... dude what was the reason

Saw The Menu tonight

**spoilers**

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Fun comedy-horror. Just the right amount of weird tension & satire. The characterization of the Tyler character was 👌 👌

But honestly what knocked my socks off was the reveal of female protagonist's profession and how it was handled. Like, she's stumbled into this absolutely unhinged murder party and she's detested this Chef guy since about 10 minutes in, and frankly it's already clear he's as annoyingly pretentious & soul-sucking as the diners... But then he pulls her into the backroom to say: straight up, I know a fellow service worker when I see one. And it turns out he clocked right away why she acted squirrly about the old rich dude at the next table. The fact that he could read the situation, and then matter-of-factly listens to her story of a sexwork job that made her uncomfortable... In that brief moment, they are the same.

It's how I was able to buy her getting away in the end. The way he kept prodding at the problem of her. She was tricked there by a dick customer (a service gone wrong) and the Chef knew that far before she & the audience did. It felt he was hoping for an excuse that could fit into his delusions.

THE MENU 🍽️ —2022, dir. Mark Mylod

Is he gonna keep doing that?

THE MENU (2022) dir. Mark Mylod