FILM: "THE MENU" OF ENTERTAINING SOCIAL COMMENTARY FILMS
BY: LOUISE BARRETTO
Everything is about experience. We forego the comfort of watching at home and in bed, and sit our bums on a theater seat (sometimes not the recliner kind) to experience image and sound in a dark room with no distractions, and in return, we get to laugh and cry with an audience. Sometimes we laugh alone and only we are in on the joke (side note: that joke is in your head), and other times, we react with the audience in unison. Nothing beats that communal experience with strangers especially as you are eating up a story. Eating in a fine dining restaurant is no different. You pay not just for the food and the reputation of the chef, but for the ambience and attentive service of the staff.
The Menu has an ensemble cast led by Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light and John Leguizamo.
The Menu, led by its stellar cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, pokes fun at the highbrow taste of the elite who are willing to pay thousands of dollars to have a culinary experience with a renowned chef (played by Fiennes). The proliferation of celebrity chefs is a clear indication that in a restaurant the chef is king — and yes, that means NO SUBSTITUTIONS. Either you eat the food as the chef intended or you bastardize the dish. Yes, chef. That’s the implicit hierarchy when dining in a hot restaurant.
Directed by Mark Mylod, who also serves as executive producer & director of HBO’s Succession, the topic of the upper crust comes naturally. And while there is much to be desired in being part of the elite, there is so much fodder to satirize them as well. We want to be like them, but also maybe it’s alright that we live our simple lives because being that wealthy comes with its own baggage.
Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winning film, The Square. 2017.
Another such satire of the rich and famous is Östlund’s The Square, which refers to the film’s eponymous art piece — literally a square in front of the museum plaza that is described in the film as “a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.” But also, “the square” can refer to the white cube of an art gallery where visitors are framed to observe works of art. Putting art in a white cube gives the art thing significance.
Art can be ridiculous as well — especially when taken out of context. Understanding context is key to really appreciating art works that may, at first, seem ridiculous. One of the film’s most memorable moments is the performance art piece where an artist (played by Terry Notary) is unleashed onto unsuspecting museum gala guests, and the artist acts like an ape and terrorizes all the VIPs. It’s nerve wrecking and uncomfortable to watch, but also, it’s what these VIPs came for, an experience they’ll never forget. That’s what good art does, it seeps through your soul and makes you see things differently.
Going back to The Menu, the chef acts as a master of ceremony as he introduces every dish and gives context to the ingredients and thought process that went into making the dish. One course leads to the next and each serving is tied to the theme. The courses are a piece of art — evocative and symbolic. Things go awry but the chef reassures the diners that it is all part of the menu.
While The Menu and The Square are two different films, it’s hard not to put the two together when they both tackle and satirize the cognoscenti in both the culinary and art worlds. Both films make you think about how you consume food and art, and with that, we are forever changed.
