Coming Attractions,  entertainment,  Film Festivals,  Film Reviews,  TIFF 2022

Anna Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes Are Savory Bites in The Menu

As a birthday gift, a girlfriend took me to a unique restaurant where cuisine was catered to our personal food tastes and served in numerous courses.  It felt really fancy and odd, but I was totally into it. Needless to say, when I screened The Menu, I immediately was reminded of that experience and how it could’ve all gone wrong in an instant.
Hawthorne Island, a 12-acre self-contained farm-to-table paradise represents the pinnacle of exclusive eats, serving celebrities and billionaires who think nothing of forking out $1,250 a head. This particular evening, the clientele includes Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), a devout foodie pilgrim, and his date, Margot (Anna Taylor-Joy), a doll always down for a free meal, a washed-up movie star (John Leguizamo), a tastemaking restaurant critic (Janet McTeer), and a trio of tech bros.  What they all have in common are meaty secrets that each new dish hints at exposing. Margot seems the be the only one immune to Hawthorne’s menu of manipulation and the only one able to spot the vulnerability concealed beneath Chef’s cultivated air of superiority.
Once seated, guests are welcomed by Chef (Ralph Fiennes), who precedes each course with a monologue (rather lengthy ones, but interesting nonetheless). As he instructs to taste, rather than eat, they are reminded absolutely no photos are allowed. The true beauty of food lies in its ability to savor rather than devour.
Anna Taylor-Joy’s performance is exquisitely fabulous when paired with the intensely focused Fiennes and together they are a dish to be served with care and expertise. She really does have the makings of a true movie star in every sense of the word. Audiences will be transfixed for every scene and every frame with an ending no one will see coming.

Written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu is loaded with wild twists enhanced by Mylod’s playfully ominous camerawork and inventive intertitles. This film is a foodie fantasy that gradually transforms into a culinary nightmare and sinister pairings of status and guilt.

I love, love love movies, watching them and discussing them...thus the birth of The Curvy Film Critic!!! Host/Producer/FilmCritic,Carla Renata is a member of such esteemed organizations as Critics Choice Association (Co-President Documentary Branch and Board Member), African American Film Critics Association and Online Association of Female Film Critics. My op-eds or features have been seen in Variety , RogerEbert.com, The Wrap The Cherry Picks, as well as being a frequent Guest Contributor to Fox 11-LA, Good Day LA, ET Live!, Turner Classic Movies, The Cherry Picks, The Stream Team (Beond TV) ITV, Fox Soul's The Black Report, The ListTV and more. Catch my reviews on The Curvy Critic with Carla Renata - LIVE!!! Sundays 5pm PST via You Tube or Facebook Live. If you like what you read please shout me out and subscribe to The Curvy Critic on YouTube. You can chat with me across all social media platforms @TheCurvyCritic and as always, thanks for supporting a sista'

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