If you like your horror served with healthy sides of clever, tongue-in-cheek dialog and on-the-nose casting, you'll enjoy The Menu as much as I did.
More a satire of the current Hollywood Crap Machine than the restaurant business, the mantle of each part is assumed by a player whose real life career in some way reflects an aspect of their character. Lucky for us, the talent and restraint of each ensemble actor and the director keeps the often self deprecating humor and even slapstick from verging on winking self awareness, unlike ( the very funny) Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun.
The Menu is truly the sum of its parts: a bare bones story, beautifully crafted dialog, an exquisitely conceived stage-like set and seriously classical storytelling (with nods to both Aristophanes and Beckett) add up to a masterpiece of modern satire.
The film is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. People who stand in line for hours to see the premier of the latest MCU offering often complain The Menu is unrealistic. We seem to have lost the ability to contemplate traditions like Absurdism, Grand Guignol and Classical Theater.
What a shame.
More a satire of the current Hollywood Crap Machine than the restaurant business, the mantle of each part is assumed by a player whose real life career in some way reflects an aspect of their character. Lucky for us, the talent and restraint of each ensemble actor and the director keeps the often self deprecating humor and even slapstick from verging on winking self awareness, unlike ( the very funny) Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun.
The Menu is truly the sum of its parts: a bare bones story, beautifully crafted dialog, an exquisitely conceived stage-like set and seriously classical storytelling (with nods to both Aristophanes and Beckett) add up to a masterpiece of modern satire.
The film is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. People who stand in line for hours to see the premier of the latest MCU offering often complain The Menu is unrealistic. We seem to have lost the ability to contemplate traditions like Absurdism, Grand Guignol and Classical Theater.
What a shame.