The following contains spoilers for The Menu, now in theaters.
The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod, is the latest in a string of class-conscious satires. Featuring an all-star cast including former Harry Potter nemesis Ralph Fiennes as sinister chef Julian Slowik, Anya Taylor-Joy as mysterious protagonist Margot and Nicholas Hoult as Margot’s slimy dinner date Tyler, the film is an effectively biting takedown of upper-crust society, the art world and the restaurant business in equal measure. Over the course of one decidedly menacing meal, the movie pits Margot against her fellow diners and the killer chef’s cadre of creepy cooks and culminates in a fittingly fiery conclusion.
The film focuses on Margot, who is unwittingly dragged to a dining experience (as terrifying as it is tantalizing) by Chef Slowik super-fan Tyler. The dinner takes place at Slowik's island-bound restaurant Hawthorne, isolated from the mainland and ostensibly inescapable. As the night progresses, each course of the malicious and meticulous meal proves to be specifically designed to unsettle and expose the varyingly vile guests present. Each of these dinners (with the exception of Margot's) Slowik charges has contributed to the destruction of his passion for the culinary arts.
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What Events Precede The Menu's Fiery Conclusion?
After a few violent outbursts and generalized panic upon the revelation that the meal’s final dish is death, Chef Slowik recognizes a fellow service worker in Margot. It's a delicious employment of the film trope in which a villain and protagonist form a tenuous bond. Margot is revealed to be an escort, paid to attend the meal by blowhard Tyler, replacing his ex-girlfriend. Out of respect for their mutually forgone passion for their individual crafts, Slowik offers Margot the opportunity to work with, as he puts it, the “givers” rather than the takers. She appears to accept, only to use her newfound freedom to break into the chef’s forbidden cabin. And it's in the living quarters Margot discovers a photo of a young Julian Slowik cheerfully cooking a hamburger, captioned by an “Employee of the Month” superlative.
How Does Margot Escape Chef Slowik's Killer Meal?
Margot is eventually found out and, along with the rest of the dinner guests, reaches the final course and the promise of her demise as the side dish. She confronts Chef Slowik, using his own methods of demanding attention in the process. She expresses her distaste, literally and figuratively, for Slowik’s cuisine and demands that her lingering hunger be satisfied. Margot sets herself apart from the rest of those in attendance by directly challenging Chef Slowik. She is no slavish devotee like Tyler, nor is she desperate for superiority and approval like food critic Lillian Bloom and her editor. She reminds Slowik of the simple truth at the center of his craft-- bringing joy to someone else.
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The simple act of creation is the purpose of art, not the intellectualization or potential acclaim that might come after. For all Chef Slowik’s conceptual prowess, nothing is as effective or enjoyable as what he makes for Margot, a simple cheeseburger. For the first time in the entire process, Slowik shows genuine care and enthusiasm for cooking. Recognizing Margot’s understanding and purity of purpose, he allows her to leave with a cheeseburger in tow. Margot “gets” the art of cooking far more than any of those who have glommed themselves onto Slowik’s talent and survives as a result.
The remaining guests seem to realize their folly and suddenly turn appreciative of their opportunity to be cleansed by the graham cracker-infused flames that Chef Slowik ignites, turning them all into absurd approximations of the most saccharine of snacks -- the s’more. But it's only in death that the attendees are released from the corrupted figures they have become, sacrificial lambs to Slowik’s culinary performance art piece. It's a fitting subversive and horrific conclusion.
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What Does The Menu's Ending Mean?
As the restaurant and island burn, the escaped Margot watches from a faraway shore and eats her cheeseburger. The death s’more might have been Slowik’s final creation, but the cheeseburger (and Margot’s enjoyment of it) is his ultimate achievement. The burger isn’t an intellectual exercise or a sociopolitical commentary -- it is art as an act of service and food as a nurturing force.
The Menu, while relatively straightforward in terms of plotting, leaves the audience with a fair amount of gristle to chew on. It’s a dense mixture of humor and spite. And while it's more than likely not the launching pad for a new horror franchise, it is an extended joke exposing those who delve too deeply into the academia and cult of personality surrounding art and artist and forget the heart of what pushes people to create in the first place. There’s a time and a place for deconstructed takes and avant-garde abstractions, but not at the expense of joy. Often there's nothing better or more profound than a greasy cheeseburger.
To see Margot enjoy her cheeseburger, The Menu is in theaters now.
