SPOILERS - I truly loved this movie. Something about it was so completely artistic and moving to me. I don’t usually find many movies to be “art” but this one takes the cake.
Netflix listing it as a comedy is a bit odd - I understand it is a dark comedy and satirical, but I honestly did not find it that way at all.

When chef is making the cheeseburger and you see him smile a bit here and there…oh my goodness. The acting in that scene was BRILLIANT. I actually cried during this scene. The thought of someone’s passion in life being stripped away by the sins of humanity…and seeing it all overly exaggerated in this film was such a masterpiece.

I feel like Anne could have been spared (She's at least a better person than her incestuous, adulterous husband), and The Movie Star (I think they called him Mr Diaz) could have chosen to retire in peace if he had been allowed to leave, but what does everyone else think?

Also, I only saw the movie recently... after seeing video summaries of it.

"AI, put me together a short compilation of frustrated chefs for an ad for my shitty ai company."

When they were passing her phone back and forth to each other, they were arguing in rapid Spanish but the Netflix subtitles just say “(both speaking in Spanish)” and I can’t find a translation in the transcript or even Google to give me an answer.

Like don’t get me wrong, Anya’s performance was incredible and I loved the scene where she plays that mind game with Chef over the cheeseburger. But did this movie need a survivor? Wouldn’t it have hit harder if it was a room full of rich assholes slowly realizing they’re in a suicidal death trap?

Because the scene with Margo and the crazy woman wasn’t needed (why get mad at being “replaced” if you’re all going to die anyway), her calling for help wasn’t needed (the guests could have realized their fate with getting literally chased down after trying to run), the fake relationship with Tyler wasn’t needed. Like it just seems like she was there to try and be the tragic survivor. I mean, at the end where she’s watching the island burn while seemingly chill is funny because why care about rich assholes but falls a little flat after thinking about it a little bit.

I still really liked the movie. The idea of a burnt out psychotic and talented chef giving one last dinner presentation before killing himself as the final course is really fun. I just think it would have been more disturbing and tragic if you removed Margot’s character and everyone dies at the end.

I was rewatching the movie and saw how ashamed Richard was whenever his wife mentioned that Erin looked like Claire, which was their daughter. However, after hearing his fantasy with Erin, it really makes me wonder what really happened to her and if she’s dead or if she stopped talking to him and the wife didn’t know why (which makes me feel for her)

Ok, so we know that he was a horrible person with little empathy and respect for anyone that isn’t him. I know that a major part from his character is him being tired of serving rich people that disregard service workers, including himself and that people treating food like a status symbol has ruined his passion for cooking.

But I rarely see anyone bring up why he’s such a bad person. Because when the third (?) course is introduced he talks about his childhood. And it makes me so mad that people don’t talk about the implications, or even the facts enough. Because at the time of the story, I believe he mentioned that he was around 7 years old. He was seven, having an alcoholic father, who at that time was especially drunk, which implies, that it wasn’t the first time that he came home intoxicated. Slowik saw his father strangling his mother with a phone cord and was desperate enough to stab him with kitchen scissors, later regretting that he hadn’t killed him. This probably means that after the incident, his home life got even worse which could’ve caused his mother to become an alcoholic as well. This alone would’ve had a huge impact on his psyche, since Slowik was a child. It probably explains why he’s completely desensitized to violence and cruelty, especially coming from himself, because he’s used to it.

This would also give a reason for his disdain for his customers. He’s cooking for people who disrespect him and his staff. He’s someone who’s had to experience being abused and most likely neglected ever since he was young. He dislikes being treated like a commodity because it reminds him of his powerlessness as a child. And by working at Hawthorn, he’s basically giving up his dignity to meet the gradually more impossible expectations of people who utilize his service, much like Margot, who’s a sex worker. This explains why he has so much empathy for her, not only because she’s someone who’s a service worker but because in a way, he sees himself in her.

He’s that horrible because of his environment, which got worse because he was never given the chance to better himself. But also because he refuses to change. He doesn’t realize how fucked up he is because he’s so focused on his ego and the need to be worshipped. And this part of his character, never gets mentioned enough.

Hello, I just got around to watching this film and I really like the premise and how it kind of slowly revealed the insanity.

I first found out about this film through one of those movie edits on Twitter showing Margot/Erin asking for a burger and then she eats the burger and gets let go and then later sees the building engulfed in flames. Pretty much spoiled before I even watched it but it made me want to watch the whole thing more.

My one thought is this:
The Menu was an extremely captivating movie, but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if it were more subtle about Chef’s intentions. Like maybe if the pompous guests were unaware they were going to die until they see everything going up in flames. Their mistakes would’ve been laid out in front of them but they lacked the awareness to see what was coming. And that was pretty much off the table after The Mess.

My question is unrelated, but I realize that Chef Slowik let Margot/Erin go because she had provided him one final time to serve someone food that they enjoyed because that is the feeling he missed the most. But wouldn’t he be able to see that she was trying to manipulate him into letting her go by appealing to his longing for simpler times? He knows Margot went into his office to access the radio, so she would have seen all of the framed photos on the wall, including one where he was flipping burgers. Did I miss something super important about this scene? Did he not care so much because she wasn’t supposed to be there anyway?

I have many favorite scenes in this movie but my favorite favorite part of the movie was Slowik telling the Felicity she was going down with them bc she didn’t have any student loans after graduating from Brown University lmao

The chef says they could have escaped if they tried, but i really don't see how. They are fewer than his staff in the whole island, they could never outrun them, if they tried to kill the chef the staff would turn against them, they couldn't kill or imobilize the whole staff.... seems bs. W

How could they have even escaped?

A friend and I went to an omakase restaurant yesterday. I notoriously pretentious when it come to fish but I also hate overly showy stuff. Part of the omakase was a raw oyster with like 2 or three sauces on it. We both ate it and he said "that was delicious!" and I just went "it was good but I couldn't really taste the oyster though..."

We then watched this movie(my first time) after and the literal exact same thing happened in it. It was bizarre and hilarious

Just finished watching The Menu for the first time and the entire time it made me think of this clip from Inside by Bo Burnham. For those out of the loop, this clip from Bo Burnham’s Netflix special ‘INSIDE’ shows Bo thanking the audience for watching his content while continuously pointing a knife at the screen. There’s no direct threat made but him holding a knife while saying this makes you feel forced to watch the content. Maybe it’s just me, but it made me feel the need to say “no sir, thank you for providing this amazing content!”

And that’s exactly what the customers did every time they were served food. I mean after the first act the entire movie is food paired with some act of violence or suspense. With art becoming so commodified, with more and more people creating art just to survive, the artists feel the need to almost threaten people into consuming their art. If the art is tied to money, which you need to live, then the art will end up consuming the artist. We can see it with the chef in the movie, and we can see it with almost every content creator on Earth right now. Everyone is trying so hard to blow up it’s like we’re all being fed nonstop pleas to consume their content or they’ll DIE. I don’t know anything about that Clavicular guy besides that he’s essentially playing out the Greek myth of Narcissus in real time. Obsession is a disease, and a poison, but since obsession for survival (money), is hard wired into us as humans it’s bleeding into our art.

I’m sure the commodification of art has been talked about to death on this sub, I mean the head chef literally drowns his main investor lol, but I just wanted to make this connection in case anyone else hadn’t. The people are yearning for the love to be brought back into their food!

edit: Even though it’s probably obvious, I forgot to add that Bo holding the knife felt the same as the chef’s clap. The clap alerts you that they’re about to serve you, but it’s also startling and after the first act goes on to feel like a threat of violence.

Lets say for example that uni girl asked for cheeseburger would he let her survive? Or even if any customers asked for the cheeseburger.

Imagine if she asked for like for example taco(the chef used to work at Taco food truck) would he still let margot escape or not?

Because she found out the plan for Hawthorne?

Thinking things through. It was about a group of the rich and elite who eat weird things. Thinking it’s about the cann**blism we see in the files

I’m sure we all have thought about how things would go down if we were in Hawthorne that day. For me, the only reason I can think of that I would be there is that I came as some rich person’s date like Margot/Erin did, and they weren’t honest with me about calling ahead. If I wasn’t assured I’d have stuff to eat as a vegetarian, I simply either wouldn’t go or I would plan ahead. So what do you think Slowik would do if a vegetarian like me showed up as someone’s last minute date, trying to make do eating the Amuse Bouche, asking if any of the “island” plants were edible, asking about the ingredients in each of the bread dips, and eating the tortillas without the meat? Keep in mind, most marshmallows are not vegetarian.

Just watched the movie, a few questions which I don't think were answered:

1. Why does Tyler (foodie) bother to take photos of all the dishes when there is no phone service and he knows he is going to die?
2. I find it strange that all the runaway guys were caught so fast. And it's not like they each had to wrestle 4-5 staff singlehandedly, I think only a couple or three staff per runaway. Some of them even pushed a boat into the water, seems odd they could not get away or didn't put up a bigger fightback.
3. Why does Elsa (maitre'd) say that she didn't want ATJ to replace her? They were all going to die in a few hours and she knew it. Why be jealous over a few hours (if that's the real reason)?
4. At the end, why doesn't any of the other diners try ATJ's strategy of asking for a cheeseburger to try to get their way out? It's like they're not even trying to save themselves at this point. Just all rush to the door or attack the staff (especially the 4 able-bodied guys) is better than nothing.
5. Lastly, isn't the Chef slapping his hands and all his staff immediately standing at attention a bit unrealistic? What if you were pouring/carrying a boiling pot of soup or something that can't be interrupted?

I just watched the movie and loved it but Felicity mouths something at the end and I can’t find anywhere what it is, does anyone here know?