the menu hbo movie review

The obscenely wealthy are having a tough time at the movies lately. Last month, Ruben Östlund stuck a bunch of them on a luxury yacht and watched them projectile vomit all over each other in “ Triangle of Sadness .” Next week, Rian Johnson will stick a bunch of them on a private Greek island to watch them wonder who among them is a killer in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

But this week, members of the extreme 1% just get stuck—as in skewered, and grilled—in “The Menu.” Director Mark Mylod satirizes a very specific kind of elitism here with his wildly over-the-top depiction of the gourmet food world. This is a place where macho tech bros, snobby culture journalists, washed-up celebrities, and self-professed foodies are all deluded enough to believe they’re as knowledgeable as the master chef himself. Watching them preen and try to one-up each other provides much of the enjoyment in the sharp script from Seth Reiss and Will Tracy .

But the build-up to what’s happening at this insanely expensive restaurant on the secluded island of Hawthorne is more intriguing than the actual payoff. The performances remain prickly, the banter deliciously snappy. And “The Menu” is always exquisite from a technical perspective. But you may find yourself feeling a bit hungry after this meal is over.

An eclectic mix of people boards a ferry for the quick trip to their storied destination. Chef Slowik’s fine-tuned, multi-course dinners are legendary—and exorbitant, at $1,250 a person. “What, are we eating a Rolex?” the less-than-impressed Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) quips to her date, Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ), as they’re waiting for the boat to arrive. He considers himself a culinary connoisseur and has been dreaming of this evening for ages; she’s a cynic who’s along for the ride. They’re gorgeous and look great together, but there’s more to this relationship than initially meets the eye. Both actors have a keen knack for this kind of rat-a-tat banter, with Hoult being particularly adept at playing the arrogant fool, as we’ve seen on Hulu’s “The Great.” And the always brilliant Taylor-Joy, as our conduit, brings a frisky mix of skepticism and sex appeal.

Also on board are a once-popular actor ( John Leguizamo ) and his beleaguered assistant ( Aimee Carrero ); three obnoxious, entitled tech dudes ( Rob Yang , Arturo Castro , and Mark St . Cyr); a wealthy older man and his wife ( Reed Birney and Judith Light ); and a prestigious food critic ( Janet McTeer ) with her obsequious editor ( Paul Adelstein ). But regardless of their status, they all pay deference to the star of the night: the man whose artful and inspired creations brought them there. Ralph Fiennes plays Chef Slowik with a disarming combination of Zen-like calm and obsessive control. He begins each course with a thunderous clap of his hands, which Mylod heightens skillfully to put us on edge, and his loyal cooks behind him respond in unison to his every demand with a spirited “Yes, Chef!” as if he were their drill sergeant. And the increasingly amusing on-screen descriptions of the dishes provide amusing commentary on how the night is evolving as a whole.

Of these characters, Birney and Light’s are the least developed. It’s particularly frustrating to have a performer of the caliber of Light and watch her languish with woefully little to do. She is literally “the wife.” There is nothing to her beyond her instinct to stand by her man dutifully, regardless of the evening’s disturbing revelations. Conversely, Hong Chau is the film’s MVP as Chef Slowik’s right-hand woman, Elsa. She briskly and efficiently provides the guests with a tour of how the island operates before sauntering among their tables, seeing to their every need and quietly judging them. She says things like: “Feel free to observe our cooks as they innovate” with total authority and zero irony, adding greatly to the restaurant’s rarefied air.

The personalized treatment each guest receives at first seems thoughtful, and like the kind of pampering these people would expect when they pay such a high price. But in time, the specifically tailored dishes take on an intrusive, sinister, and violent tone, which is clever to the viewer but terrifying to the diner. The service remains rigid and precise, even as the mood gets messy. And yet—as in the other recent movies indicting the ultra-rich—“The Menu” ultimately isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know. It becomes heavy-handed and obvious in its messaging. Mind-boggling wealth corrupts people. You don’t say.

But “The Menu” remains consistently dazzling as a feast for the eyes and ears. The dreamy cinematography from Peter Deming makes this private island look impossibly idyllic. The sleek, chic production design from Ethan Tobman immediately sets the mood of understated luxury, and Mylod explores the space in inventive ways, with overhead shots not only of the food but also of the restaurant floor itself. The Altmanesque sound design offers overlapping snippets of conversation, putting us right in the mix. And the taunting and playful score from Colin Stetson enhances the film’s rhythm, steadily ratcheting up the tension.

It’s a nice place to visit—but you wouldn’t want to eat there.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik
• Nicholas Hoult as Tyler
• Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot
• Hong Chau as Elsa
• Janet McTeer as Lillian Bloom
• Judith Light as Anne
• John Leguizamo as Movie Star
• Rob Yang as Bryce
• Mark St. Cyr as Dave
• Reed Birney as Richard
• Aimee Carrero as Felicity
• Arturo Castro as Soren
• Christopher Tellefsen
• Colin Stetson

Cinematographer

• Peter Deming

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The Menu Is Deliciously Mean

Auguste Escoffier, the inventor of the brigade system that still informs how so many commercial kitchens are run today, was inspired by bullying and battlefields. As a teenager, he got pushed around while apprenticing with his uncle, and as a 20-something army enlistee during the Franco-Prussian War, he saw potential in repurposing military structures to bring order, cleanliness, and hierarchy to the kitchen. The bullying, you could argue, didn’t go away so much as it became sublimated into the profession Escoffier helped elevate to an art, with an emphasis on obedience and discipline. When the FX series The Bear , which is essentially about a group of restaurant workers trying to figure out a better way of doing things when the only models they have are toxic, came out in June, it prompted as many PTSD shudders from industry employees past and present as it did “Yes, chef!” memes.

The kitchen staff in The Menu , a deliciously mean movie from frequent Succession director Mark Mylod and Onion alums Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, bark “Yes, chef,” too, and when they do, it’s with an unsettling martial precision. Whatever haute cuisine’s pretensions — and The Menu skewers many; it is as much black comedy as it is thriller — the kitchen is not actually a war zone. And yet at Hawthorne, a fictional restaurant that seats only a dozen customers a night at $1,250 a pop, workers are pinned between the belief that what they’re doing is worth sacrificing everything for and the reality that they have surrendered their lives to grueling service work. A sad-eyed and scary Ralph Fiennes plays star chef Julian Slowik, who’s both the staffers’ chief abuser and a fellow captive, as well as the guiding force behind a particularly ambitious evening at his exclusive eatery. Fiennes is adept with a barely there sneer, which he puts to great use here in a role that’s the most fun he’s been since Hail, Caesar!

In terms of the diners, there are a few finance bros (Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang) more invested in the status that comes with a reservation than the experience itself. There are the celebrities: a preening food critic (Janet McTeer), her editor (Paul Adelstein), and a slightly tarnished movie star (John Leguizamo) in the company of his assistant (Aimee Carrero). Then there are the monied regulars (Reed Birney and Judith Light), as well as a simpering foodie named Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) whose date, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), is the film’s heroine and lone unexpected attendee — the guest list has been as carefully curated as the meal. Tyler is a superfan prone to saying things like “Chefs, they play with the raw materials of life itself, and death itself,” and he’s increasingly exasperated with Margot’s indifference to the food and accompanying narrative, though you can’t really blame her. Hawthorne, located on a small island a short ferry ride from the mainland, feels inspired by the setting of Lummi Island’s the Willows Inn and the Scandi severity of Noma in Copenhagen. But the dishes, designed by actual chef Dominique Crenn, quickly take a turn toward the absurd with a fussily plated amuse-bouche giving way to a “breadless bread course” that’s basically a series of dips — then on to something darker.

There’s no tastier meal than the rich, though what makes The Menu more satiating than other recent, glitzier skewerings of ultracapitalism is that its satire isn’t so glib that it leaves you feeling comfortably outside of the proceedings. Instead, it summons the suffocating feeling of having no way out of a doomed setup. Julian’s breakdown owes as much to the personal and the petty as it does to the systemic. And he and his collaborators — among them an aridly precise maître d’ (Hong Chau) and sous-chefs played by Adam Aalderks and Christina Brucato — have pathos even as their actions veer toward the extreme, while Mylod makes the most of the limited location by turning Hawthorne’s luxurious trappings and surroundings into just a trap. The rage at the heart of The Menu is directed at the impossible melding of art and commerce, at the way we’re taught that success at the former requires the support of the latter, even if it means making crushing compromises that drain the joy out of, in this case, the expressly straightforward pleasure of food. The film has sympathy for the sentiment that there’s no way out of this bargain, but it also appreciates the outrageousness of its own apocalyptic scenario. After all, you can always quit, walk out the door — presuming, that is, that you’re allowed to.

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‘The Menu’ Review: Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy in a Restaurant Thriller That Gives Foodie Culture the Slicing and Dicing It Deserves

It's at once a Michelin Star version of "Saw" and a tasty satire of what high-end dining has become.

By Owen Gleiberman

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If you’re someone who considers themself a foodie (and I totally am), chances are there was a moment in the last few years when you had The Awakening. It may have been when the waiter was describing the veal marrow with beet foam served with baby lettuces from New Zealand. It may have been when you were eating the red snapper that was cooked halfway through, like a rare steak, and you thought, “I love sushi, I love cooked fish, but I’m not sure this is really the best of both worlds.” It may have been when you saw the bill.

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“The Menu” is a black comedy, but one played close to the bone. And it is a thriller, because after a while what’s being served to the diners segues from pretentious to dangerous. Even the danger becomes a form of snobbery: This is how much the food matters . Yet the tasty joke of “The Menu” is that the food doesn’t matter at all. The food is an abstraction, an idea , all generated to fulfill some beyond-the-beyond notion of perfection that has little to do with sustenance or pleasure and everything to do with the vanity of those who are creating the food and those who are consuming it.

The latter, in this case, are an ensemble of diner victims as brimming with theatrical flaws as the characters in a “Knives Out” movie. That’s why the knives are out for them. They’re getting what they deserve just for coming to this restaurant, for buying into the dream that this is the meal they’ve earned, because that’s how cool and prosperous and elite they are.

Tyler (Nichols Hoult), a devoted foodie geek, already knows he’s going to love everything that’s served. He had brought along a date, Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), who is not nearly as into it — in fact, she turns into the audience’s cynically levelheaded, ordinary-person representative who sees through all the puffery on display. Lillian (Janet McTeer), a food critic, prides herself on writing the kinds of reviews that close restaurants, so we know she’s going to get her just deserts. There’s also a trio of tech bros (Arturo Castro, Rob Yang, and Mark St. Cyr) who, between the three of them, incarnate every flavor of obnoxious. And there’s a well-liked but fading movie star, played by John Leguizamo, along with his assistant (Aimee Carrero), who’s using the dinner as a pretext to part ways with him.

“The Menu” is divided into courses, with each dish, and its ingredients, listed on screen, and for a while the movie is content to satirize the food. The first dish features foam (a tipoff that it’s not going to melt in your mouth so much as evaporate before you can enjoy it). And that’s the down-to-earth dish. Each succeeding one represents more and more of a deconstruction of food as we know it. Chef Slowik is a mad scientist of gastronomy who has reduced the very essence of cooking to a glorified lab experiment. The diners are his guinea pigs, which may be why he harbors a barely disguised contempt for them. As it turns out, the menu he has masterminded is meticulously arranged for all of them to get their just deserts, as if this were the Michelin Star version of “Saw.”  

All the actors are fun, but the two lead actors are so good they’re delicious. Ralph Fiennes plays the art chef from hell as a high fascist of snobbery, as if his mission — to make food that’s to be savored but is somehow too great to eat — were exalting him and tormenting him at the same time. And Anya Taylor-Joy, as the customer who’s got his number, cuts through it all with a sparkle that grows more and more contemptuous, as she puts together the big picture of what’s going on: that the decadent aristocratic superiority of it all is the whole point. The grand finale is bitingly funny, as Chef Slowik deconstructs the ultimate junk food — the smore, a “fucking monstrosity” that will cleanse everything with its fire. “The Menu” says that the trouble with what high-end cuisine has evolved to is that it’s grown too far apart from the low end, leaving nothing in between. No matter how divine the food is, you wind up starving.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 106 MIN.

• Production: A Searchlight Pictures release of a Hyperobject Industries, Alienworx Productions production. Producers: Adam McKay, Betsy Koch, Will Ferrell. Executive producers: Michael Sledd, Seth Reiss, Will Tracy.
• Crew: Director: Mark Mytod. Screenplay: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy. Camera: Peter Deming. Editor: Christopher Tellefsen. Music: Colin Stetson.
• With: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, John Lequizamo, Reed Birney, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang.

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The bloody thriller The Menu finishes the grim story that Pig started

Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy lead a bloody chiller about a haute-cuisine chef who turns on his patrons

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by Tasha Robinson

This review was first published in conjunction with The Menu ’s premiere at the 2022 Fantastic Fest. It has been updated for the movie’s HBO Max release.

One of the most-discussed movie scenes of 2021 reads like an unplanned prequel to Mark Mylod’s black, bloody comedic thriller The Menu . In Michael Sarnoski’s Pig , chef-turned-backwoods-recluse Rob (Nicolas Cage) gently eviscerates the chef of a ritzy haute cuisine restaurant, who also happens to be one of Rob’s former employees. In Rob’s view, the other chef betrayed himself when he abandoned his dream of owning an intimate, comfortable pub, in favor of serving elaborately deconstructed food to snobs who mostly care about how much it costs. “Every day, you wake up and there’ll be less of you,” Rob tells the chef, who looks devastated — but not like he disagrees. “You live your life for them, and they don’t even see you. You don’t even see yourself.”

The Menu feels like the next step in that story, if the hapless high-end chef had decided to turn Rob’s revelation outward against his clientele instead of inward. The Menu mocks the kind of people who would eat at that restaurant Chef Rob despises, with its “emulsified scallops” and “foraged huckleberry foam, bathed in the smoke from Douglas fir cones.” But it also finds a little humanity in them as well. One of the most intriguing things about the movie is the way the filmmakers find room to skewer every target in sight.

Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Margot, a last-minute date for rich foodie obsessive Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who’s secured a seating at an exclusive restaurant on a private island, headed by the renowned Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). Margot doesn’t care about the kind of food Chef Slowik serves, such as a few artfully spaced blotches of sauce on a plate, billed as a cheeky “breadless bread course.” But Tyler is obsessive about Chef Slowik’s work, and the possibility of earning his attention and interest. They’re an odd couple from the start, with a strange tension between them that suggests secrets waiting to be revealed.

They aren’t the only ones with secrets. The other diners on this particular evening include a smug food critic (Janet McTeer) and her sycophantic editor (Paul Adelstein), a minor movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero), a trio of loud tech boors who start the night off by boasting about fraudulently expensing their dinner, and an older couple who feel they might recognize Margot. Then there’s Chef Slowik, who’s planned a dangerous “menu” for the evening, designed to bring everyone’s secrets to light.

How far Chef Slowik is willing to go, and what’s going on with Margot, make up most of the complications in The Menu. Otherwise, it might just play out as a fairly grim and familiar revenge thriller aimed at some easy targets: rich, entitled, rude, self-satisfied people. If there weren’t more going on under the surface, The Menu would risk coming across as a fancy version of one of those teen slashers that’s mostly just about watching symbolically obnoxious, shallow young people getting mown down by a killer.

Instead, Seth Reiss and Will Tracy’s script doles out the revelations with a careful sense of pacing and escalation, keeping a balance of sympathies between victims and mastermind. They clearly don’t expect the audience to entirely throw in with the people paying $1,250 apiece for a minimalist dinner, mostly for bragging rights about the experience. But they don’t leave their victims as ciphers, either. Margot naturally gets center stage, and Taylor-Joy gives her a fierce, brittle “I’m totally over this nonsense” energy that makes her a compelling protagonist. Hoult gives an equally strong performance as a man being forced to come to terms with his own pretensions in a particularly painful way. But each character in turn gets a little stage time, including Chef Slowik’s dedicated assistant, Elsa (Hong Chau, fresh off The Whale , but most memorable as the villain in the 2019 Watchmen series ).

And Fiennes himself is a considerable asset, as usual. He directs the action at his restaurant like a cult leader, puts on a warm, benevolent face when it suits the story, then brings a ruthless form of cold psychopathy to the table for other scenes. Trying to guess what’s under his surface is one of the movie’s bigger challenges, and one of its biggest joys, mostly because he’s scripted and performed as a villain with a few sympathetic wrinkles, a man who courts empathy and evokes horror at the same time.

The Menu often reads like an expansive version of a single-set play, where a group of people forced into close proximity gradually crack under pressure and reveal new things about themselves. A lot of what keeps it going isn’t that stagey energy, but the staging itself. Production designer Ethan Tobman was inspired by everything from Luis Buñuel’s devastating 1962 film The Exterminating Angel (another film about smug elites who can’t escape each other) to German expressionist architecture. He and cinematographer Peter Deming give the film a harsh, punishing chilliness that emphasizes both the lack of comfort or warmth in haute cuisine and the state of Chef Slowik’s mind. It’s an appropriately sumptuous and sense-driven film, with something striking to look at in every frame.

The Menu doesn’t always add up, though. There’s a strange unwillingness to commit to the film’s Grand Guignol potential, likely out of a desire to keep the cast around for the final act. There’s a disconnect between Chef Slowik’s hatred of his guests and the level of their comparative crimes, some of which are far more personal and meaningful than others. The film’s contempt for arrogance and entitlement is straightforward and satisfying, but when other motives start driving the story, like Elsa’s jealousy over Margot or Chef Slowik’s rage over not having each of his dishes remembered, the revenge story curdles a bit.

Still, Reiss and Tracy’s willingness to implicate Chef Slowik along with his vain, surface-obsessed victims gives The Menu some startling intrigue. Like the pretentious chef Nicolas Cage calls out in Pig , Slowik engineered his own downfall and his own torment, and The Menu doesn’t let him off the hook by playing out as a straightforward eat-the-rich morality tale. The humor in this movie is mostly subtle (particularly in the hilariously wry course titles that appear on screen), but it is ultimately as much of a comedy as a horror-thriller. There’s some knuckle-biting tension as viewers wait to see how it’ll all play out, but Mylod and the writers also suggest that it’s worth chuckling a little at everyone involved, whether they’re serving up fancy versions of mayhem or just paying through the nose for it.

The Menu is now streaming on HBO Max and is available for rental on digital platforms like Amazon and Vudu .

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The Ending of The Menu , Explained

When the food is so good, it's to die for.

Dinner is served on The Menu , the new horror-thriller following a group of wealthy foodies traveling to a remote island to dine at the exclusive (and unfathomably expensive) restaurant Hawthorne. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy , Ralph Fiennes, and Nicholas Hoult, the film takes on a searing critique of the banalities and bewilderments of the ultra rich, whose insular obsession with their self-importance ultimately leads to their own demise.

In The Menu , r enowned chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) meticulously crafts a dining experience tailored to 11 of the restaurant's patrons—but the unexpected appearance of Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a sex worker hired to accompany fellow guest Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to dinner, ruins his plans.

Ahead, we explain the movie's shocking ending. (Proceed at your own risk—spoilers are ahead!)

What happens at the end of The Menu ? Does Margot survive?

Erin, an escort who goes by the name Margot while working), accompanies Tyler, a cult follower of chef Julian Slowik, to an exclusive dinner prepared at Julian's high-end restaurant, Hawthorne. The restaurant, located on a remote island where Julian and his army of kitchen staff live and work, promises a night of culinary storytelling to its wealthy patrons—but, little do they realize that they're on the menu.

Julian plays the part of the mad genius, driven to despair despite his acclaim due to his clientele's nonchalant disregard for his craft. His solution? To liberate himself and his patrons with one last meal, in which he slowly reveals to them the sins of their ways (cheating scandals, money laundering, et cetera). As the night goes on and as people are shot, stabbed, and sliced at, the diners gradually realize that they and all of Hawthorne's workers—including Julian—will die.

Unfortunately for Julian, Erin's arrival throws a wrench in his dinner plans. Tyler, who still willingly came to the island after Julian secretly confided his murderous plans to him ahead of time, hired Erin after his original plus one broke up with him. Initially, Julian attempts to rectify the unforeseen damage by asking Erin to choose a side: stand with the workers or stand with the patrons. She chooses the workers, and Julian sends her on a mission outside of the restaurant to retrieve a canister. Instead, she ventures into Julian's house, where she happens across his treasured career memorabilia, like a photo of him happily flipping burgers when he was a young chef, and a radio. On the radio, she desperately sends out an SOS call, but the Coast Guard officer who arrives turns out to be in on Julian's master plan.

The night forges on, with the last, fatal course imminent. Making a last-ditch effort to escape, Erin confronts Julian head-on, telling him that dessert can't be served yet because she's still starving. She says it like a challenge, which Julian eagerly takes up. When Julian asks her what she'd like to eat, she tells him she wants a simple cheeseburger. What follows is a delicious montage of Julian whipping up the fast food staple, wearing the same rare smile in the photo Erin discovered.

When Julian finishes cooking, Erin graciously accepts the burger, taking a generous bite of the dish. Afterwards, she apprehensively tells him that she overestimated her appetite and asks if she can take the burger to-go. Stunningly, he relents, even giving her a doggy bag for her troubles.

She escapes into the night, heading out into the water via the abandoned Coast Guard boat just in time to see the restaurant erupt into flames behind her. Julian had covered the restaurant and his guests in giant marshmallows, chocolate syrup, and graham cracker crumbles—his lethal interpretation of s'mores—before igniting Hawthorne.

As the ship's engine stalls in the dark of night, Erin, exhausted, sits on the bow and looks out at the fire. She opens up the takeout box and finishes the rest of her meal.

Why did Julian spare Erin's life?

The one thing Julian lacks in his illustrious career as a chef is joy. Erin picks up on this and, in mocking his intellectualism and avant-garde menu, she forces him to rekindle his love of cooking by making her a cheeseburger.

"Ralph’s character and Anya’s character are about connection," director Mark Mylod told Den of Geek . "Ultimately, she has manipulated him. He also realized that she’s manipulating him but he allows her to win. All the unspoken business is in the final discourse between them and the burger. It’s a mutual understanding… and he allows her to go 'checkmate.'"

By restoring his integrity as a cook in his final moments, letting Erin escape death is almost Julian's way of expressing his gratitude.

Why don't the diners fight back?

By the time Julian's sous chef shoots himself in the forehead, it should be apparent to every one of the diners that the night has taken a turn for the worst. And yet, the night progresses with little pushback from the terrified patrons.

As Mylod explains, "The absolute futility of escape coupled with the journey they’ve been on, that whisper in the air of Slowik’s words over that evening, over the dinner, the combination of those two elements is just taking them to a place of absolute naked submission." And it doesn't help that there were plenty of cooks keeping guard at all of the restaurant's exits.

As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset. 

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The Menu Reviews

This gourmet show takes unforeseen directions when each step of the menu is transformed into a theatrical act, where the tension will go to a crescendo and the experience that chef Slowik and his team have prepared is not what the diners expected...

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 22, 2024

The Menu is an entertaining horror satire with a marvelous ensemble cast but fails to deliver a slightly interesting punch line.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2024

“The Menu” demonstrates how capitalism and its relationship to consumerism can actively suck the joy from creatives, particularly as they attempt to fulfil the needs of the most affluent and entitled consumers.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2024

“The Menu” suggests that such fanatism to an ephemeral art which requires hard work and isolation could lead to a cult like atmosphere brewing insanity and resentment

Full Review | Jun 8, 2024

There were so many moments I loved

Full Review | Apr 24, 2024

Its A Solid B

Despite knowing how the story goes and where the twists and turns are, The Menu is a film that I can see myself going back to again and again.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 1, 2024

The movie captivated the audience in a way that held us hostage to Chef Slowik's emotional manipulation. This was cunningly executed.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2023

The Menu perfectly and sharply captures the milieu of this fine dining world with a scathing takedown of the condescension and pretension that fuels it.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

Black satire skewers the world of haute cuisine.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

With splashes of horror and comedy, The Menu explores the world of fine dining restaurants. The movie has a stellar cast, including Fiennes and Taylor-Joy, who are incredible and magnetic together.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

The Menu delivers an engaging time and will leave the audience with a tantalizing sardonic meal.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

...when the writers found themselves in a difficult plot situation, they resorted to the cheat of some sort of magical powers the Chef can weld with a whisper. Each time such a moment happens, the film begins to lose its grip on the reality of horror.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 9, 2023

The Menu is a perfectly cooked, deliciously evil delight of a film that definitely won't be to everyone's tastes, but if it's your sort of dish at all, you're all but guaranteed to love every minute of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 4, 2023

This gastronomic experience leaves no space for its comedic quips or food for thought, leaving way too much to be desired.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 29, 2023

In a unique pairing with the palpable tension comes the dark humor of the film— two facets that usually do not go hand in hand in film as laughter famously diffuses any built up tension, but The Menu cooks up a balance that really works.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 26, 2023

“The Menu” is best explained by Hong Chau’s Elsa when she whispers to one of the guests during dinner: “You’ll eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.”

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

A delicious satire that bites right into any industry that people obsess over. A haunting watch but one that will have you laughing & completely in love with the script.

The Menu deserves to be seen with very little knowledge of the plot. Even the trailers (and likely this review) give too much away. It’s a dark, vicious satire that expertly unfolds itself over the course of ten dishes.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

A very clean and well-performed movie that lets you get entirely immersed in it with zero distractions from its narrative and its purpose.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 14, 2023

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises. A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises. A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

• Ralph Fiennes
• Anya Taylor-Joy
• Nicholas Hoult
• 1.3K User reviews
• 320 Critic reviews
• 71 Metascore
• 2 wins & 60 nominations

Top cast 35

• Chef Slowik

• Boat Waiter
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Screenwriter Will Tracy came up with the idea of the story while on his honeymoon in Bergen, Norway, when he took a boat to a fancy restaurant (Cornelius Sjømatrestaurant) on a nearby private island and realized they were stuck (or trapped) on the island until the meal was done. There are numerous references to restaurant Noma (Copenhagen) in The Menu, starting from the location, idea, concept, and ending with the menu itself.
• Goofs As Margot approaches the silver door in Chef Slowik's house, light can be seen through the keyhole. When she opens the door, the room is dark.

Chef Slowik : Where did you go to school?

Felicity : Brown.

Chef Slowik : Student loans?

Felicity : No.

Chef Slowik : Sorry, you're dying.

• Connections Featured in Chris Stuckmann Movie Reviews: The Menu (2022)
• Soundtracks Happy Birthday To You Written by Patty S. Hill (as Patty Hill) and Mildred J. Hill

User reviews 1.3K

• ethanbresnett
• Oct 13, 2022
• How long is The Menu? Powered by Alexa
• November 18, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• 20th Century Studios
• Official Site (Japan)
• Savannah, Georgia, USA
• Hyperobject Industries
• Searchlight Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $35,000,000 (estimated)
• $38,501,125
• Nov 20, 2022
• $79,628,200

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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The Menu Review: Wickedly Delicious

• An ingeniously clever horror-comedy
• Merciless satire of the elite
• Surprisingly appetizing, all things considered
• Maybe not scary enough for some tastes?

"The Menu," directed by Mark Mylod from a screenplay by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy that placed on the 2019 Black List , was my favorite film of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. That's a welcome surprise, considering the festival also featured great new movies from Steven Spielberg , Rian Johnson , and Jordan Peele among others. I have no clue if this thing is going to be a hit in theaters; it might be too grotesque to become a traditional awards season contender while also not quite enough of a typical horror film to be a sure thing at the box office. Those who see it and love it, however, are sure to want to tell all their friends about it.

Honestly, you might not want to know any more about this movie before seeing it — I've already told you that it's great, and it's the sort of movie that's likely best to go in cold for. Even the full trailer might arguably reveal too much, though thankfully there are enough twists beyond what the trailer shows to keep you on your toes. The rest of this review will avoid spoilers beyond what's been shown in the trailer, but fair warning: If you're sold on "The Menu" already, you might not want to read any further in this review until after you've seen the film.

A hilarious eat the rich satire

"The Menu" joins the Cannes Palme D'or winner "Triangle of Sadness" and the "Knives Out" sequel "Glass Onion" in a 2022 mini-trend of satires about rich people stuck together in isolation on an island. In this case, the island is Hawthorne, home to a high-end restaurant owned by Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) as well as all the farms and resources needed to procure the food for its fine dishes. The 12 guests dining at Hawthorne in the film represent a wide cross-section of the one percent: actors, athletes, food critics, and finance bros.

Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) is the odd one out in this crowd as a woman from a working class background being treated to this exclusive meal by her date Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), an obsessive foodie who's also unusual in being the only one to be genuinely into Chef Slowik's high-concept courses and figuring out the "story" of the night. Of course, in his worship of the Chef, he misses the soon-obvious point of the night's meal: The Chef and the restaurant staff taking their revenge against their customers.

Though some speculated as such from the trailer's images of cooks hunting people in the woods and descriptions of "surprise" meals, "The Menu" is refreshingly  not another cannibalism-themed movie. It's very much got an "eat the rich" attitude, and you could compare the characters of Chef Slowik and his maître d' Elsa (a hilarious, scene-stealing Hong Chau) to Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, but the punishments and manipulations here are far more creative than just literally eating people. One of the film's best running gags is the presentation of each "course" like they were an episode of "Chef's Table."

Much of the creative team responsible for "The Menu" previously worked together on HBO's "Succession," including director Mark Mylod, producer Adam McKay, and writer Will Tracy. The film's other writer, Seth Reiss, comes from The Onion. These are the perfect people to handle this wildly entertaining satire, and the ensemble of actors they've assembled treat the material deliciously. Originally written in 2019 but subsequently given rewrites to cheekily address the struggles of restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic, "The Menu" works as the sort of single-location film that's become increasingly efficient to make since 2020, but its expert usage of its setting feels far more cinematic than many of its more stage-like indie peers.

Heart at the center of a twisted concoction

For the most part, "The Menu" is the sort of horror movie where there are no real "good guys," and the viewer is mostly rooting for the carnage that ensues rather than being scared of it. The moments where fear genuinely sets in are when the relatively sympathetic restaurant workers become collateral damage in the Chef's big plot, as well as those where the one fully sympathetic protagonist Margot is in peril.

Margot's presence was not part of the Chef's plan, and she struggles having to navigate the suspicions others have about her as well as figuring out where she fits between the givers and the takers. The back and forth between Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy is the source of the film's most compelling character development and is possibly its greatest strength overall. There is a sadness in both of their stories. The Chef is still clearly a villain, but he's a weirdly likable one despite his obviously monstrous behavior.

Margot, on the other hand is easy to root for. While horror fans are likely to predict her being the "final girl," they will still be left guessing how she's going to possibly survive the evening (take three guesses; I can't possibly imagine you getting the answer right without seeing it). Margot and the Chef's character arcs offer some of the story's most meaningful twists, adding a little bit of genuine pathos amidst a film that mostly succeeds as one big hilarious lark.

"The Menu" targets the culture and pretentious of the fine dining world, but it's one I expect foodies to appreciate even when it's making fun of them (hopefully not missing the point as much as Tyler does in the movie). The final courses of Chef Slowik's meal solidify "The Menu" as sure to be mentioned alongside the likes of "Pig" and "Ratatouille" in the lists of the best movies about what food means to people. For those that can vibe with its twisted taste, it's easily among the best new films to hit theaters this year.

"The Menu" opens in theaters on Friday, November 18.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Released on US big screens this past November and now streaming on HBO Max , The Menu is another dark comedy in a vein similar to that of 2022’s Glass Onion . Both films fire repeated shots across the literal and figurative bows of boats carrying groups of well-to-do folks to exotic destinations and untoward outcomes.

The Menu opens innocently enough as a group of foodies—with one noteworthy exception—board a boat to reach noted chef Julian Slowik’s (Ralph Fiennes) Hawthorn restaurant on a private island. The party includes Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), a Slowik-fanboy, the “exception,” his date Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy), a hired “escort”; food critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer) and her editor Ted (Paul Adelstein); has-been movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero); three business partners working for the restaurant’s major investor—Soren (Arturo Castro), Dave (Mark St. Cyr), and Bryce (Rob Yang); returning Hawthorn diners Richard (Reed Birney) and Anne Leibrand (Judith Light); and the chef’s alcoholic mother Linda (Rebecca Koon).

Dinner begins, and Julian introduces a series of courses, served by a large waitstaff supervised by maître d’hôtel Elsa (Hong Chau). As the meal proceeds, we find out that each guest was selected for an unsavory secret like a clandestine affair or stealing money that made Julian lose his taste for haute cuisine. Matters turn grisly during the fourth course when a disturbed sous-chef commits suicide and a waitstaff member amputates Richard’s ring finger when he tries to escape. We also get a distant view of the restaurant’s unnamed major investor getting drowned as other guests make futile efforts to get away.  Julian reveals his real purpose for this evening’s dinner—and it is a chilling one for everyone present except Margot who was not on the official guest list. She eventually becomes the only attendee resourceful enough to try to save herself from an impending apocalyptic event.

Screenwriter Will Tracy has given director Mark Mylod and his cast a proper balance of comedy and horror. Nicholas Hoult plays the perfect by-the-numbers straight man to Anya Taylor-Joy’s street-smart “working girl.” But it is Ralph Fiennes’s outstanding performance as the film’s avenging angel that carries the day for a strong group of veteran screen actors like McTeer, Leguizamo, Birney and Light.

Visuals of this production are also very strong as provided by cinematographer Peter Deming, the result being his cameras give the unusual dishes being served very up-close perspectives that make them look extremely tasty. Dark humor films like Glass Onion and Triangle of Sadness seem to be all the rage these days and The Menu can certainly hold its own with the competition. Granted that some of the violent images might be too much for timid viewers but, for the most part, this is a well-done film that will grab your attention and not let go until the very end. Highly recommended.

The Menu is currently streaming on HBO Max and available on various digital and VOD platforms.

• Rating Certificate: R (for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references)
• Studios & Distributors: Hyperobject Industries | Gary Sanchez Productions | TSG Entertainment | Searchlight Pictures | HBO Max
• Country: USA
• Language: English
• Run Time: 106 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Director: Mark Mylod
• Written By: Will Tracy | Seth Reiss
• Release Date: 30 December 2022

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The Menu: how to watch, awards and everything we know about the movie

Bon appetit with The Menu, a dark comedy/thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Get ready to make a reservation for one messed-up dining experience, as the 2022 movie The Menu serves up a dark comedy treat for audiences. So what does The Menu have cooking up? (OK, think we've gotten all food/restaurant puns out of our system now).

In addition to an all-star cast, many members of the creative team behind The Menu have connections to one of the best shows on TV, Succession . This includes producer Adam McKay, director Mark Mylod and one half of the screenwriting team, Will Tracy. Is The Menu going to have the same satirical bite the HBO show has?

Here is everything we know about The Menu .

How to watch The Menu

The Menu is currently playing exclusively in movie theaters. Find out more about where it's playing and when it may be coming to streaming with our how to watch The Menu post.

The Menu plot

The Menu is an original idea from screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. The movie is described as a mix of comedy, horror and thriller elements while being set at an exclusive high-class dining experience. Here is the official synopsis from Searchlight Pictures:

"A couple travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises."

We get a bit clearer picture of the plot in the official trailer, which you can watch below. The dinner is just one part of the experience, as the guests also appear to be involved in a deadly hunt.

See The Menu and have some questions? Check out our The Menu ending explained piece.

The Menu trailers

Dig in with all of the released trailers for The Menu right here.

The Menu reviews — what the critics are saying

Critics are loving The Menu , with the movie scoring (as of November 17) a 91% "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes and a healthy 70 on Metacritic . What to Watch's The Menu review calls the black comedy "deliciously good fun."

The Menu awards and nominations

Here is a roundup of the major awards and nominations that The Menu has received:

Golden Globes

• Best Actress: Comedy/Musical — Anya Taylor-Joy (nominee)
• Best Actor: Comedy/Musical — Ralph Fiennes (nominee)

Satellite Awards

• Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical — Ralph Fiennes (nominee)

The Menu cast

The Menu is not short on star power, as its top billing includes Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult.

Ralph Fiennes is a Hollywood veteran, having starred in memorable movies like Schindler’s List , The English Patient , The Constant Gardener , the Harry Potter franchise and The Grand Budapest Hotel. He also had another 2022 movie, The Forgiven . Fiennes plays chef Slowik in The Menu .

Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are the main couple in the movie, Margot and Tyler. Both Taylor-Joy and Hoult have been rising stars over the last few years. Taylor-Joy has starred in The Witch , The Queen’s Gambit and Last Night in Soho . In 2022, she appeared in The Northman and Amsterdam . 

Hoult first got noticed in About a Boy , but more recently he has broken out thanks to roles in Mad Max: Fury Road , The Favourite and the Hulu original series The Great .

The rest of The Menu cast are no slouches either. Filling things out are Janet McTeer ( Ozark , Albert Nobbs ), John Leguizamo ( Encanto , Moulin Rouge! ), Hong Chau ( Downsizing , Watchmen ), Judith Light ( Julia , Transparent ), Reed Birney ( House of Cards , Home Before Dark ), Paul Adelstein ( True Story , Prison Break ), Aimee Carrero ( Elena of Avalor , Maid ), Arturo Castro ( Mr. Corman , Broad City ), Mark St. Cyr ( High School Musical: The Musical — The Series ) and Rob Yang ( Succession , The Resident ).

How long is The Menu?

The Menu has a runtime of one hour and 46 minutes.

What is The Menu rated?

The Menu has been given an R rating in the US and a 15 in the UK for "strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references."

The Menu director

Mark Mylod is directing The Menu . Much of Mylod’s career has come on the TV side, directing episodes of Shameless (both the US and UK version), Entourage , Games of Thrones and Succession , including four episodes of the most recent season 3. Mylod is also an executive producer on Succession . His movie credits prior to The Menu are Ali G Indahouse , The Big White and What’s Your Number . 

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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Common Sense Media Review

Dark horror-comedy is bloody, funny, and tasty.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Menu is a horror comedy about a couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) dining at an exclusive, high-end restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has something sinister cooking. It's a very satisfying combination of shocks, laughs, and ideas, and it's recommended to mature…

Why Age 15+?

Character shoots self in head: huge blood spurt, blood on floor. Person's finger

Several uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "Jesus f---ing Christ," "s--t," "bulls--

Dialogue about sexual advances. Brief dialogue about infidelity.

Diners drink wine throughout, sometimes to excess. Main character smokes cigaret

Any Positive Content?

Talks at length about artistry and the mysterious, complex connection between ar

Margot is the first character to show skepticism toward the movie's strange situ

A woman is the main character. Among the male and female diners, there are two A

Violence & Scariness

Character shoots self in head: huge blood spurt, blood on floor. Person's finger chopped off, bloody wound. Person stabbed in thigh with scissors. Characters fight over knife; one is stabbed in the neck, gurgling blood. Person hangs self with necktie. Someone is drowned. Another person burns in flames. Other characters die. Chase through woods. Woman jumping at man, slapping him. Explosion.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "Jesus f---ing Christ," "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "badass," "pr--k," "hell," "whore," and "oh my God." "Jesus Christ," "Jesus," and "Christ" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Diners drink wine throughout, sometimes to excess. Main character smokes cigarettes. Brief mention of a character having a DUI.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Talks at length about artistry and the mysterious, complex connection between art, an artist, and consumers of art. Artists can lose their passion, but audiences can also ruin the work with a lack of appreciation -- or an overly fastidious appreciation. Seems to argue that simplicity, passion, and love are best, while prestige, wealth, and fame can only spoil things.

Positive Role Models

Margot is the first character to show skepticism toward the movie's strange situation -- and the first to stand up for what's right and to try to save herself (and, hopefully, the others). She has a rebellious, devil-may-care attitude. She's not exactly admirable, but she's a fighter.

Diverse Representations

A woman is the main character. Among the male and female diners, there are two Asian men, a Black man, and a Latino man; one woman presents as Latina. All are shown to be flawed or crooked in various ways. Among the chefs, there are a few women (one is Asian), but many are White men; head chef is a White man.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Menu is a horror comedy about a couple ( Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult ) dining at an exclusive, high-end restaurant where the chef ( Ralph Fiennes ) has something sinister cooking. It's a very satisfying combination of shocks, laughs, and ideas, and it's recommended to mature foodies. Expect gory moments, including blood spatters, a gunshot to the head, a severed finger, stabbing, hanging, a fight over a knife, gurgling blood, a character burning, and more death. Characters use words such as "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), and more, and there's some dialogue about sexual advances and infidelity. The main character occasionally smokes cigarettes, and all the diners drink wine, sometimes to excess. There's also a mention of a character having a DUI. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (13)
• Kids say (22)

Based on 13 parent reviews

Graphic suicide scene

Unpredictable, occasionally violent thriller is funny and original, what's the story.

In THE MENU, Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) and Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ) prepare for an evening out at the exclusive Hawthorne facility, where a meal costs $1,250 per person. Tyler is a passionate foodie and a huge fan of Chef Julian Slowik ( Ralph Fiennes ), who runs the restaurant. Only 12 customers will be dining tonight, and the night's menu is designed to tell a specific story. Things start getting strange when the staff discover that Margot isn't on the reservation list (she's taking the place of Tyler's ex-girlfriend) -- and stranger still when the guests are given a bread plate with no bread. But when a sous chef presents his creation as one of the courses and then shoots himself in the head, the guests truly begin to wonder whether it's all part of the show ... or if something more sinister is cooking.

Is It Any Good?

It's complete nonsense, but this very dark horror-comedy strikes just the right notes of stone-cold humor and red-hot malevolence, making for a delectable dish that satisfies all the way down. In The Menu , the guests, as Chef Julian points out directly, never make much of an attempt to save themselves. And even though viewers might find this frustrating, there's truth in their combination of sheer disbelief and sense of decorum. The movie's wicked genius lies not only in its execution but also in its ultimate themes. As the food keeps coming and small things are revealed, some of the guests continue to enjoy the show and eat; it's a fascinating psychological and social experiment. Where does perception end and reality begin?

And even though the ultimate plan in The Menu is a whopper of a doozy, the theme behind it is a thoughtful exploration of art, artists, and their complex relationship with consumers. The Menu balances gut-level humor and horror with higher-minded themes, all with a twinkle in its eye and a gleam of its blade. Fiennes plays the chef with a clever restraint and even a bit of fatigue (he recalls, ever so slightly, his take on Voldemort), forgoing the hints of madness that many other actors usually choose for villain roles. And Taylor-Joy projects strength and independence, indignant when her date tries to shush her by snapping his fingers ("Did you just snap at me?"). Director Mark Mylod , a small-screen veteran from Severance and Game of Thrones , keeps the small-scale, one-location movie feeling fluid and kinetic. Overall, it's a palate-pleaser.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Menu 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Would you consider this a horror movie ? Why, or why not? Is it scary? If not, what makes it horrific?

Have you ever made something for someone who didn't appreciate it? How did that feel? How does art create communication between a creator and a consumer?

How does the movie depict drinking and smoking ? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

Does Chef Julian take responsibility for his own perceived failings? Does he blame others? What's the difference?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 18, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : January 17, 2023
• Cast : Anya Taylor-Joy , Ralph Fiennes , Nicholas Hoult
• Director : Mark Mylod
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Searchlight Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Cooking and Baking
• Run time : 106 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references
• Last updated : August 25, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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From ‘The Menu’ to ‘Fresh,’ Movies Are Exploring the Horrors of Rich-People Food

With a pinch of dark humor, “The Menu” on HBO Max and “Fresh” on Hulu explore the potential terrors of feeding the 1 percent.

By Tejal Rao

Listen to This Article

All night long, in increasingly imaginative ways, a chef tells diners that they’ve chosen the wrong guy — the wrong world! — to worship. Here’s the problem: No one believes him.

These diners are used to theatrical dining rooms and V.I.P. culture. They’re used to long, $1,000 fine-dining dinners, and being waited on by a staff that has researched them ahead of time, and kept detailed notes on their personal and professional lives, preferences and behavior.

They’re used to being watched and accompanied everywhere they go, including the bathroom. They hardly blink when they’re shown around the restaurant property, only to see that workers sleep together in a crowded barracks. The extreme inequality is unremarkable.

Even before things turn violent, “ The Menu ,” which opened in theaters in November and currently streaming on HBO Max, and “ Fresh ,” now streaming on Hulu, use horror to magnify the kinks and distortions of luxury dining, and the deceptions that can be necessary to enjoy them.

In “The Menu,” Julian Slowik is the chef of a remote fine-dining restaurant who seems almost in control of his unraveling, played with a cold, hypnotic severity by Ralph Fiennes. The diners are sketches of types who might surround you at dinner — if you booked the tasting menu at an exclusive, three-Michelin-starred restaurant.

This means a trio of interchangeable finance bros who came here to party, a puffed-up restaurant critic who loves to hear herself talk and a couple of old, blunted moneybags, barely awake to each other, let alone to the sensual experience of eating and drinking — the food blurs together, receding in real time, disappearing from memory before they can finish chewing.

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'The Menu' is a new horror comedy starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy — here's how to watch the critically acclaimed thriller

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

• "The Menu" is a critically acclaimed horror comedy starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult. 
• The movie follows a young couple who attends a lavish dinner party that takes a deadly turn. 
• You can stream "The Menu" on HBO Max , or buy it to watch through services like Amazon and Vudu . 

Following a 45-day exclusive window in theaters, "The Menu" is now available to watch at home. The horror satire can be streamed on HBO Max , and is also available for purchase from Amazon , Google , and Vudu .

The movie follows Margot and Tyler, a young couple who gets invited to enjoy a special meal on a remote island by a mysterious celebrity chef. The menu is lavish, expensive, and full of surprises for the pair and their fellow diners, but little do they know that their luxurious meal is going to take a horrific turn. 

Check out the 'The Menu' trailer

"The Menu" is directed by Mark Mylod ("Succession"), and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult as Margot and Tyler. The rest of the cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo.

How to watch 'The Menu'

You can watch "The Menu" at home with a subscription to HBO Max. The movie is also available to purchase from digital retailers like Amazon for $15.

HBO Max subscriptions cost $10 a month with ad-supported streaming, or $15 a month for ad-free streaming. Both plans grant access to the full HBO Max library including feature films, exclusive shows, and originals. The ad-free plan also adds support for downloads and 4K playback for select titles.

If you'd rather not sign up for HBO Max, however, don't fret: "The Menu" is also available for digital purchase from Amazon, Google, and Vudu for $15. Once purchased, you can watch the movie as many times as you want in up to 4K resolution.

If you're willing to wait a few weeks, though, a cheaper rental option is expected in the near future. An exact release date hasn't been announced yet, but it's likely you'll be able to rent the movie around the time it hits Blu-ray on January 17.

Can you watch 'The Menu' for free?

You can watch "The Menu" for free by scoring a free trial to HBO Max through Amazon Prime Video. Though HBO doesn't offer free trials directly, Prime members can get one week for free through Amazon's HBO Max add-on. 

Just sign into your Amazon Prime account and add the seven-day HBO Max trial to your membership — then you'll have access to the HBO Max library, including "The Menu," for one week, free of charge. The trial is only available to new HBO members.

Is 'The Menu' streaming on Disney Plus?

"The Menu" is streaming on Disney Plus, but only in select regions outside of the US, including Canada, the UK, and Ireland. In the US, the film's subscription streaming rights are currently held by HBO Max. 

Is 'The Menu' worth watching?

As of January 3, "The Menu" holds an "89% Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes . Critics praise the film as a scathing, though somewhat shallow, commentary on consumerism and social inequality, full of enjoyable dark comedy.

With such positive ratings, "The Menu" is definitely worth watching, especially for fans of the cast, director, and genre. 

When is 'The Menu' coming to Blu-ray?

You can buy "The Menu" on Blu-ray starting January 17.  The Blu-ray will also feature a code to redeem a digital copy of the film. You can preorder "The Menu" on Blu-ray through retailers like Amazon for $20. 

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

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Harry Potter Star Hopes Harry and Ginny’s Romance Is Better Developed in Upcoming HBO Series

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Despite many fans preemptively complaining about HBO's upcoming Harry Potter reboot, the new series gives the show a chance at expanding some of the un-adapted elements of J.K. Rowling's beloved books, and star Bonnie Wright has some ideas. Wright played Ginny Weasley , Ron Weasley's younger sister, in every single Harry Potter movie, and slowly became a core member of Harry's group — before becoming his love interest in the later movies. The relationship between Ginny and Harry in the movies is very different in the books, with one of the film series' main criticisms being their rushed depiction of the romance.

Speaking to Variety during this year's annual Back to Hogwarts event, Bonnie Wright hopes that HBO's new series will vindicate Ginny and Harry's relationship from the books. The new series will re-tell each novel, this time adapting one book per season , rather than condensing them down into feature films.

With the extended runtimes, Wright says there is plenty of opportunity to explore the nuanced aspects of their romance, and allow it to bloom naturally, rather than it being forced into the last few films. When asked what she wants to see in the new series, the actress explained:

"So many things. More of the development of the relationship between Ginny and Harry. There’s nuanced moments of where they begin to fall in love. I think more of that arc of her character becoming this real loyal sidekick to Harry and how she really understands and knows his story and who he is and is the best partner for him. So I just hope we see that evolution of that character — and so many characters. If only we could have had five-hour movies. There are so many characters that have moments I love from the books — Neville and Luna — so I’m hoping, as a fan of the books, that I get to see more."

There Will Be "More Pressure" on the New Harry Potter Cast

Before the Harry Potter movies were adapted into feature films by Warner Bros., Rowling's books had already developed a devout following. But the 8 films in the franchise (not including the Fantastic Beasts movies ) have become cultural landmarks of the fantasy genre, and enjoy countless annual re-watches from millions — when the franchise hit Netflix earlier this year, the movies dominated the streamer's Top 10 chart for weeks.

Harry Potter Star Somehow Forgot She Was in the Seminal Franchise

Evanna Lynch, channeling the scatterbrained nature of her character, completely forgot she starred in the franchise during a recent rewatch.

Bonnie Wright doesn't envy the new cast of HBO's Harry Potter series. No official casting has been announced for the show yet, but whoever is brought on to the show will not only have fans of Rowling's books to contend with, but also the fans of the movies. However, the actress hopes that the new cast members don't feel pressured to live up to the original movies, and put their own spin on the franchise. She explained:

"But I also think it’s such a fun opportunity for these people, whether how they’re cast or how they perform their roles, to just have fun with it and have their interpretation of it. I don’t think I would have any advice, to be honest, because I think it’s so important for them to be in their world and their interpretation of it. And I feel that’s so important, from an actor’s perspective, director’s perspective, to really make it their own. So I’m really looking forward just to being this time on the other side and be the one watching every week on television, and be the audience. And I really hope that the interpretations feel different and alive and new and fresh."

HBO's Harry Potter series is scheduled to release in 2026.

• Bonnie Wright

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A first look at the Minecraft movie

Grab some popcorn and watch the teaser trailer!

Ready to dig into a new adventure? Take a first look at the Minecraft movie in the teaser trailer and feast your eyes on the Overworld as you’ve never seen it before.  

A Minecraft Movie is directed by Jared Hess (best known for Ninety-Five Senses and Nacho Libre ) and stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black as well as Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, with Jennifer Coolidge. Get a glimpse into the adventures that await and the friends you’ll meet in our first ever motion picture! Coming 2025. 

Four misfits – Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks) – find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: the bizarre, blocky wonderland that we know and mine extensively love.  To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like piglins and zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Black).  Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world. 

Left wanting more? Well, good news: there’s much more to come! Make sure you sign up for email updates to be the first to get all the Minecraft news. 

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Review: David Chase Recounts Creating Iconic HBO Series The Sopranos in Two-Part Alex Gibney Doc Wise Guy

Steve prokopy.

• September 6, 2024
• Film , Film & TV , Review

Directed by the great Alex Gibney ( The Inventor , Taxi to the Dark Side , Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room ) and divided into two distinct parts, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is the story of how an unassuming guy from New Jersey created one of the most important television series in broadcast history (or more precisely, cable history, since the show was released on HBO, as is this doc).

Marking the 25th anniversary of the show’s debut, the director and his team rebuilt the therapy offices of Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco, probably the highest profile actor on the show at the time of its debut because of her work in Goodfellas ) and sat Chase down for an epic interview, during which he explains the parallels between the world he grew up in and the series, beginning with his eccentric and likely mentally ill mother.

Over the course of just under three hours, we walk through Chase’s childhood, his television career prior to The Sopranos , and the meteoric rise to success the show experienced almost immediately thanks to unlikely protagonists. The film also addresses the care with which Chase took to create not just interesting characters but daring to dive into their psyches and various deals with the devil that those not in the New Jersey mafia made to benefit from its existence. Ever the reluctant subject, Chase nevertheless is open and honest in his “sessions” with Gibney about every aspect of the show, including casting, what a taskmaster he could be, and how often he borrowed from classic cinema to do everything in his power to make the series not feel like television (although he only directed the first and last episode of the show).

We also get interviews with Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Drea de Matteo, Steve Van Zandt, as well as a handful of writers, technical team members (director of photography Alik Sakharov is especially insightful). And HBO execs are interviewed at length to dig into the challenges of the show at its beginning as well as after it became a success. But the most interesting conversations are with Chase about his complicated working relationship with star James Gandolfini (who died in 2013 at age 51), who had always had issues (personal and professional) playing this character and how dark he needed to take his mind to play mob boss Tony Soprano.

Chase also gets reflective about the unenviable task of killing off beloved characters or writing real people from his life into the characters on the show. The first part of the documentary is the buildup of the show’s popularity through the first season, with the second half focusing on the perils of fame and success (“Now you’re a brand,” someone tells Chase), and how everything stems from Chase wanting to direct movies since he was in his 20s.

The standard-issue behind-the-scenes footage and archival interviews are enough to warrant watching Wise Guy , but director Gibney rarely directs surface-level documentaries about any of his subjects, let alone this beloved series. Groundbreaking individual episodes are analyzed for what they did that no one else dared to. And yes, Chase does dig deep into the controversial final scene of the last episode of the show without giving any definitive answers about its meaning or what happens after the scene smashes to black.

If you watched The Sopranos as simply a show about gangsters, Wise Guy proves that you were only getting about one-third of the point of it all. This film fills in a great deal of what else the series was trying to accomplish and why it’s still considered such iconic television.

The two-part documentary debuts Saturday, Sept. 7, on HBO, with Part 1 airing at 7pm CST, and Part 2 at 8:20pm CST; the film will be available to stream on Max as well.

Did you enjoy this post? Please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by  making a donation . Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support! 

Steve Prokopy is chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review. For nearly 20 years, he was the Chicago editor for Ain’t It Cool News, where he contributed film reviews and filmmaker/actor interviews under the name “Capone.” Currently, he’s a frequent contributor at /Film (SlashFilm.com) and Backstory Magazine. He is also the public relations director for Chicago's independently owned Music Box Theatre, and holds the position of Vice President for the Chicago Film Critics Association. In addition, he is a programmer for the Chicago Critics Film Festival, which has been one of the city's most anticipated festivals since 2013.

Screen Rant

10 harry potter movie scenes that make book readers angry.

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I Know Exactly How HBO's Harry Potter Remake Should Begin - And It Totally Changes The Books

Harry potter tv reboot: ginny star addresses potential return to the wizarding franchise, i just realized i've been completely wrong about this harry potter mystery.

While they were generally well-received, the Harry Potter movies didn't do justice to some of the major scenes from the book, with results that angered readers. The Harry Potter books are all very detailed, with numerous subplots and supporting character backstories that didn't make it into the movies. Due to time constraints, the Harry Potter movies rush through certain scenes that try to awkwardly accomplish the same effect in only a few lines.

On the other hand, the Harry Potter movies change some things from the books for dramatic effect, which is necessary with the medium change but also completely contradicts the point of some book scenes. There are too many Harry Potter moments that were better in the books , with some of the movies struggling to hold up today. What can be said for the Harry Potter TV show reboot is that it will have more screen time to give some plot points the additional exposition they really need.

10 Harry Breaks The Elder Wand

Harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 2.

Harry's wand being broken during the fight with Nagini is a strangely devastating moment and not just because of its built-in defense against Voldemort. Harry has been using the wand containing Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes' tail feather since first year, and the readers are as attached to it as he is. Luckily, Harry acquires the Elder Wand, which is powerful enough to fix broken wands that are typically beyond saving. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his old wand.

If HBO’s Harry Potter is hoping to be more book accurate, then I know exactly how the television show should start (it’s not how the movie started).

This moment is cut out from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 . Harry breaks the Elder Wand and throws it off the bridge outside Hogwarts, shocking Ron and Hermione . Harry fixing his old wand is almost a consolation prize after the devastation of the Battle of Hogwarts that fans truly missed. Additionally, it seems contradictory that the Elder Wand is that easy to get rid of; the conclusion in the book that Harry will have to die of natural causes to break its power is more weighty.

9 Death Eater Attack On The Burrow

Harry potter and the half-blood prince.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the best Harry Potter book precisely because it has less action and more thematic material, namely through Voldemort's backstory. However, this is understandably difficult to adapt into a movie that needs to keep the audience engaged with strong pacing. The filmmakers probably thought the new action sequence of the attack on the Burrow would improve the movie's pacing, as well as give the Death Eater characters more screen time.

However, the consensus among fans is that the attack, while visually interesting and saddening, was completely unnecessary. The incident also creates some plot holes regarding the security of the Burrow. By the time of the sixth and seventh books, the Weasleys' home is always heavily protected by numerous enchantments. Not only does this movie suggest the Death Eaters can show up at the Burrow wherever they want, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 implies that the Burrow is warded, until the Ministry of Magic falls, making it more confusing.

8 The Shrieking Shack

Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban tries to cram the two major scenes of exposition about Sirius' past with the Potters into a few sentences. The first is Harry overhearing the adults' conversation at the Three Broomsticks; the second is Sirius and Remus ' clarification in the Shrieking Shack. Both conversations move unreasonably fast, with no mention made of the Fidelius Charm and how it works. It treads the same ground as the Burrow issue, which is when and how Voldemort can just show up at people's houses.

The Shrieking Shack is also where Hermione famously gets one of Ron's best lines.

Fans mock some of this dialogue in Prisoner of Azkaban , such as Harry shouting "He was their friend!" as if Ron and Hermione have any idea what he is talking about. The Shrieking Shack is also where Hermione famously gets one of Ron's best lines. The movie also never clarifies Harry's father's connection to the Marauder's Map. Even if nothing else works out in the TV show, it will at least have the time for all the necessary exposition about this storyline.

7 Harry & Voldemort Flying

There are some narrative parallels between Harry and Voldemort in the books, but Harry's actual fear about this is old news by the final installment. Maybe the filmmakers were trying to bring this theme back with the flying scene, but the result is just too goofy for it to have any impact. At this point, no one is worried about the implications of Harry and Voldemort both being orphans or both being able to talk to snakes; all that matters is ending the war.

Then there is the actual scene, which tries too hard to be dramatic. Harry is rushing through the explanation about the Elder Wand which doesn't really matter, before grabbing Voldemort and launching them both out of the tower (for some reason). They fly around for a little bit, both screaming, during which their faces briefly mesh together. The whole thing is the epitome of cringe-worthy, something most Harry Potter fans can agree on.

6 The Quidditch World Cup

Harry potter and the goblet of fire.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire features a beautiful rendition of the stadium used for the Quidditch World Cup. The sequence is visually amazing and captures the feeling of this being the ultimate Wizarding World event , hyping people up to watch the match. Except for the movie cuts away to after the match just as it is starting, with only a brief comment referring to the Irish team's victory. This is regarded as a bit anti-climactic and robbing fans of one of the biggest potential spectacles.

As HBO's Harry Potter series continues to take shape, Ginny Weasley actor Bonnie Wright shares whether she would return to the franchise.

Admittedly, Goblet of Fire has a lot to fit into its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, with several action sequences that are essentially sporting events within the story. This is in addition to the underlying plot of Voldemort planning his return, which also only gets a short explanation before Barty Crouch Jr. completely disappears from the movie franchise. In retrospect, the briefly discussed plan to split Goblet of Fire into two movies might have been worthwhile (via CBR ).

5 Beauxbatons & Durmstrang Introduction

In the book, it is made explicit that Beaxubatons and Durmstrang are both co-ed magical schools like Hogwarts. A select number of students from each school come to Hogwarts to put their names forward for the Triwizard Tournament, boys and girls among each group. The movie only shows female students from Beaxubatons and male students from Durmstrang, strongly implying that they are gendered institutions. In addition to this, both of their presentations of magic upon their arrival are highly gender-stereotyped performances.

This scene gets some criticism for the pseudo-musical numbers just being weird, but they actually make some sense in the context of the books. Goblet of Fire also mentions that the rival magical schools tend to show off whenever they are together, motivating the showy displays of magic. However, the two entrances in the movie are cloyingly feminine and masculine, and it's not as if either of these countries doesn't have potential magical students of the opposite gender.

4 Snape's Memories Cut Out Why His Friendship With Lily Ended

Snape's redemption is a contentious subject in the Harry Potter fandom solely based on the book material. The prevailing opinion is that Harry naming his second son after Snape glosses over Snape's abuse of his students and his toxic relationship with Lily. Like many other scenes in the movies, the sequence of Snape's memories which reveal his childhood friendship with Lily are squashed down to a montage that hopes to convey the basic plot points and some semblance of emotion.

However, in the process, it omits why Lily ended the friendship in their fifth year. After years of siding with future Death Eaters and abusing other students of Muggle descent, Snape publicly called Lily "Mudblood ." Lily realized that Snape inherently acted as though she was a lesser person and stopped speaking to him. Snape's relationship with Lily is more of an obsession, something the books fail to make clear and the movies even more so.

3 Ginny & Harry's "Shoelace Scene"

Ginny's character is generally maligned by the movies, as she is reduced from a feisty, brave young woman and an interesting character in her own right to a passive love interest. No scene between her and Harry is made fun of more than the "shoelace scene," with Ginny noticing that Harry's shoelace is untied and fixing herself, moments before the attack on the Burrow. It tries to imply some kind of romantic tension and tenderness, but it would have been more true to the books if Ginny had just started making fun of Harry.

Nearly all of Harry and Ginny's scenes try to suggest flirting through mundane interactions, all coming across as flat and cheesy.

Nearly all of Harry and Ginny's scenes try to suggest flirting through mundane interactions, coming across as flat and cheesy. Their first kiss scene in the Room of Requirement is supposed to be ethereal, but it is again completely out of character for Ginny. Ginny needs actual dialogue to support the characterization that Harry is attracted to, and to make their dynamic feel organic and like real people falling in love.

2 Voldemort's Death

Voldemort dissolving into bits of paper was also probably done for dramatic effect. The filmmakers likely wanted something more climatic than the villain simply dropping dead to reward the audience for sticking with the series for years. However, Voldemort's death including a corpse in the aftermath says even more. He doesn't need or deserve to be characterized as otherworldly; in the end, he is just a man who amassed a lot of power and killed a lot of people, and everyone is grateful he is dead.

The Harry Potter books reveal that Voldemort planned to make one more Horcrux, and I just realized that I was totally wrong to count this item out.

Voldemort's movie death is also somewhat confusing regarding what effect the Horcruxes had on his physical form and how he was remade when he was once more of a spirit who attached himself to the back of Quirrell's head. Needless to say, the theatricality of the movie wasn't received well. Showing an actual body would have been disturbing, but also oddly reassuring about the conflict being over.

1 Dumbledore Gets Mad At Harry

Dumbledore's movie reaction to Harry being selected as a Triwizard champion is possibly the most memed moment of the entire series. At least with time, this discrepancy on the part of the movie has become hilarious. The book explicitly says that Dumbledore "calmly" asked Harry if he had submitted himself for consideration, true to Dumbledore's usual character and how he usually trusts trustworthy students. This is followed by a long conversation among the adults about the rules of the tournament.

The movie tries to raise tension, with nearly all the adults shouting at each other, including Dumbledore. The result is that it also rushes through why Harry has to compete, which is already flimsy reasoning in the book. Hopefully for the franchise, the next time someone adapts Harry Potter , they will avoid these same oft-made fun of moments. However, given how fantasy adaptations usually go, they will probably prompt some new memes at the same time.

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Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students' time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.

Source: CBR

'Hard Truths' Review: Mike Leigh’s Newest Movie Features One of the Year’s Best Performances | TIFF 2024

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In watching Hard Truths , the first film from writer-director Mike Leigh since 2018’s Peterloo , it’s hard not to think of the film in conjunction with the rest of his career , and in a way, how the other movies in his filmography are speaking to this one. Naturally, Secrets & Lies comes to mind, as Leigh finds himself reuniting with Marianne Jean-Baptiste . So does the brashness of Naked , and the unsettling home life of Meantime . But strangely, it’s 2008’s Happy-Go-Lucky , that most comes to mind, particularly with the film acting as almost the polar opposite to that film’s sensibility.

What Is 'Hard Truths' About?

In Happy-Go-Lucky , Sally Hawkins played Poppy, a character whose constant optimism is a ray of light to everyone she comes into contact with, regardless of whether they want that level of joy in their life or not. The perfect contrast to that bubbly personality comes in Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy, who finds frustration in every person she meets and their every action. When we first meet Pansy, she wakes up with a scream, as though she’s coming out of slumber ready to fight. At first, Pansy’s antagonistic attitude is almost comically irritating, as no one can so much as breathe around Pansy without her jumping down their throats. She goes to a furniture store and complains that the worker there wants to help her with a couch. She goes to a doctor and dentist and questions every single decision they make in trying to undergo their observations.

Her exasperation is at first humorous, but then, we start to see the true impact that Pansy’s attitude has on those around her. She yells at her husband Curtley ( David Webber ) over the simplest tasks, and her son Moses ( Tuwaine Barrett ) seemingly goes on daily walks solely for the silence they provide. Whenever Pansy expectedly raises her voice at them, they respond with a blank stare, a sign of exhaustion, knowing full well that it’s better to just let her get this ire out of her system before she moves on to the next thing.

The counterbalance to Pansy is her sister Chantelle ( Michele Austin ), who, unlike Pansy, finds happiness in her life. As a hairdresser, Chantelle is a great people person, and she’s playful with her two daughters Savannah ( Tiwa Lade ) and Anna ( Bryony Miller ). Even just looking at their homes shows the difference between the two siblings. There are no signs of life in Pansy’s dour house, it’s naturally darker, and the space is filled with either glaring silence or Pansy’s rants. But Chantelle leaves her door open and lets the light in, a home full of good memories, and life, as she and her daughters fill their home with laughter. Leigh’s film begs the question: what made Pansy and Chantelle have such divergent outlooks on life?

Marianne Jean-Baptiste Gives One of the Year's Best Performances in Her Reunion With Mike Leigh

Considering Jean-Baptiste and Leigh’s last collaboration, Secrets & Lies , earned both Oscar nominations, and Leigh has a penchant for utilizing the same actors in multiple projects, it’s quite surprising these two haven’t collaborated as actor and writer-director in this capacity since. But Hard Truths makes this reunion well worth the wait. Jean-Baptiste’s role as Pansy holds her feelings close to the chest, yet we know that there must be something deep down that has made her this way, something more destructive than just the day’s obstacles. We never hate Pansy, but rather, we sympathize with this woman who we can’t quite figure out. Even though Jean-Baptiste is essentially utilizing different types of rage in this performance, the range that she finds within that toolbox is immense. Especially as we begin to get clues as to what could’ve led to this, it becomes clear that not even Pansy is content with who she’s become, a tragic character who doesn’t know how to escape this pit she finds herself in. Jean-Baptiste makes an extremely difficult role sing, and it could end up being one of the strongest performances of the year.

Of course, Pansy’s fury doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and equally important is the fantastic supporting cast who has to reckon with Pansy’s actions. Particularly excellent is Austin, who is the only one brave enough to still give her sister a chance at redemption. She wants to know what’s really going on, as the closest person to Pansy, yet she still doesn’t have any answers. It’s particularly difficult to see the light in Chantelle dim when she comes in contact with Pansy, but she knows she must do what she can to save her sister from herself. It’s a tremendous performance that shows immense love and care even in the worst of situations.

Also great are Webber and Barrett, who show the toll Pansy’s actions have taken on this family. They’ve given up, and Pansy seemingly hasn’t come to realize this fact yet, always more concerned with herself. Both the characters of Curtley and Moses are mostly silent, but again, there’s so much we can learn from their dead stares, or as they stay silent eating their meals to a soundtrack of Pansy’s listing of grievances. Also beautifully explored are the other sisters, Savannah and Anna. Here, Leigh is showing just how delightful a true sisterly bond can be, while also hinting that maybe Pansy and Chantelle could’ve once had a relationship as strong as this one. The way Leigh uses these characters to inform us of Pansy’s story is impeccably handled , a sign of a master storyteller that still has plenty to offer.

Hard Truths is a remarkable presentation of Leigh’s work as a filmmaker and shows that even in his 80s, he's one of the most vibrant and exciting writer-directors we have. Leigh takes the time to build his characters and his world with these actors, and the proof is right on screen. Even when Leigh hides the answers to these “hard truths,” and leaves things open to the interpretation of the audience, it’s clear he deeply knows every detail of what creates his troubled world. His reunion with Jean-Baptiste makes one wish they had even more films together under their belt since first working together almost thirty years ago, but Hard Truths more than makes up for this. After decades of making incredible work, Leigh proves that he's still an essential voice in filmmaking today.

Hard Truths (2025)

Hard Truths, the latest from Mike Leigh, proves that he's still a remarkable auteur, and presents one of the best performances of the year by Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

• The way Mike Leigh builds his small worlds and watches these characters interact is still a sight to behold.
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives an incredible performance with a character who's difficult to portray.
• This entire cast elevates Pansy's story, each showing the joys and pains of this world Leigh has created.
• It's just a damn shame there aren't more Mike Leigh and Marianne Jean-Baptiste collaborations in the world.

A woman navigates complex family dynamics while grappling with her own emotional struggles. The film explores themes of kinship, resilience, and the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and change.  

Hard Truths had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

• Movie Reviews

• Marianne Jean-Baptiste

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Boy and the Heron’ on HBO Max, Hayao Miyazaki’s New Masterpiece of Heart and Vision

Where to stream:.

• The Boy and the Heron
• Studio Ghibli

New Movies on Streaming: ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ + More

What to watch when you get the munchies on 4/20, is ‘the boy and the heron’ streaming on netflix or hbo max, hbo max black friday deal 2022: get 80% off your first 3 months.

For my buck-and-a-half, the parakeets make The Boy and the Heron ( now streaming on Max , in addition to VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ), more so than the nutty-ass heron himself. Such are the delightful and strange surprises Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki packs into his films, and this one, reportedly but possibly not his last (I think the same was said of his last one, 2013’s The Wind Rises ). Par for the course, the film is meticulously hand-drawn, and is a return to absolute fantastical form for Miyazaki, albeit with enough fresh surreal touches and deep poignancy to make it both a nod to his greatest past works and very much its own venture. The master director/animator, now 83, was rewarded with an Oscar, a BAFTA, nearly $300 million in worldwide box office grosses and, as this review further affirms, significant critical acclaim.

THE BOY AND THE HERON : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Air raid sirens. The bombs killed his mother, burning her alive in a hospital, and forced him from his home. Mahito (Luca Padovan) is 11 and he shouldn’t be going through this. Nothing justifies his suffering. “Three years into the war, my mother died,” he narrates. “A year later, my father and I left Tokyo.” They end up in the countryside at a grand old house, and Natsuko (Gemma Chan) looks just like his mother, and there’s a reason for that – she’s his mother’s sister. She introduces herself to Mahito as his “new mother.” And she’s pregnant. It’s a lot all at once for an 11-year-old.

At least Natsuko is kind and willing. Mahito’s new life offers him all the material things he’ll ever need – and his father Shoichi (Christian Bale) too, whose factory is so close you can see it from the front steps. (Shoichi owns it, building airplanes for the war effort. Yes, they can afford many things thanks to this enterprise.) Mahito has his own room, a sprawling estate to explore inside and out, a servant staff at beck and call. This is where it gets, well, odd . Seven grannies scurry about fussing over him and they’re small and eccentric like Snow White’s dwarf compadres. An unusually aggressive heron seems to be stalking him, staring from the pond, peering in his window, landing on the sill and shitting and squawking. And a tower-silo stands on the grounds, its entrance blocked by debris. He follows the heron’s molted feathers into the tower, collecting them, but Mahito can’t fit through a narrow crevice. Natsuko shares the story of the tower: Her granduncle built it, filled it with books, went mad and disappeared, never to be seen again. It sounds like a myth.

Mahito regularly dreams about trying and failing to save his mother from grasping flames. He attends school and is the rich kid, an object of scowls and fists; on his way home, Mahito hits himself on the side of the head with a rock and walks home, blood pouring from the wound. He spots the heron in the pond and approaches. “I will guide you to your mother,” it says as a chorus of fish tails up out of the water and echoes it and a legion of frogs climbs all over Mahito, smothering him. He faints. When he awakens, he fashions a bow and arrow to ward off the heron threat. The arrow doesn’t fly straight, so he affixes the heron’s feathers as the fletching. Soon thereafter, Natsuko wanders into the forest. She had been ailing due to the pregnancy, and now she’s missing. Mahito tracks her path and follows dream-logic transitions into a world that makes no logical sense, and giant, goose-stepping, people-eating parakeets aren’t even the half of it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Bizarre dreams, quasi-doppelgangers, a narrative playing out in nonsense-time – Miyazaki’s work has always been wildly creative, but it’s never been so, you know, David Lynch before. Think Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive if the edge was more whimsical than horrifying. And animated, of course.

Performance Worth Watching: It took Miyazaki and his animators years – years – to hand-draw every cel in this film. Watch that .

Memorable Dialogue: “Your presence is requested!” – the heron’s mantra

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The story of a child escaping real-life hardship by indulging their imagination and undergoing a spiritual journey isn’t a new one for Miyazaki, Ghibli or anyone, it seems. But The Boy and the Heron feels special, almost monumental, for being an explosion of creativity stemming from the filmmaker’s own life – residual feelings from his family being chased from urban to rural environs by World War II, from their affluence due to their father’s (essentially war-profiteering) industry, from his connection with his mother (who lived to be 72, a point of departure for the film). He takes his specific experiences and broadens them to a universal idea: How do children deal with loss, tragedy, the grotesqueries of war, all things so much bigger than themselves? It’s a shock to young minds still learning the core tenets of altruism. 

The 5 Best Studio Ghibli Movies That You Can Stream Right Now

As the best stories inevitably do, the film feels emotionally accessible at the same time it’s deeply personal to its creator – who, you’re likely aware, channeled the broad patina of his emotional life into myriad films that touched many so profoundly. For me, it’s My Neighbor Totoro , Spirited Away and Ponyo , and I feel, through simple interpretation of images, I willed references to them into existence in The Boy and the Heron : The mysterious trail into the woods Mahito follows feels like an explicit rendering of the path to the slumbering forest spirit Totoro; the spirits Mahito sees rowing through the waters are black, almost cosmos-beings like the bathhouse beings in Spirited Away ; at one point, Mahito navigates and angry sea like the one Ponyo merges with. 

Perhaps these are specific callbacks Miyazaki inserted on purpose, the act of a man looking retrospectively over his early life, and, within the logic-deprived out-of-time-and-space unreality Mahito visits, envisioning his creations from past films as the product of fruitful dreams. (The director makes a point to occasionally show Mahito’s feet in close-up, on solid ground, as if to toy with us before rendering the character’s reality indelibly liquid. As ever, Miyazaki’s eye for such detail is keen; there are no throwaway shots here.) You also could write a master’s thesis on Miyazaki’s many grannies throughout his filmography – they’re always in some way nurturing, authoritative and in touch with the ethereal, and always rendered with strange faces dotted with warts and moles, their eyes large, buggy, often pointed in opposite directions, the distortions of a child’s point-of-view. 

In these old women, and many other elements of The Boy and the Heron – god, the pelicans and frogs and that heron, who seems to have a strange, strange man living inside his belly, they’re all wonders – there is weirdness and seriousness and comedy and danger and magnificent pathos, emotions and impressions that never stand out starkly, but blend together as the fabric of life. I was especially moved by scenes in which Mahito summoned bravery from somewhere deep inside him, not for his emerging courage, but because I couldn’t help but wonder if Miyazaki is doing the same with this lovely, sad, bizarre and, above all that, life-affirming film.

Our Call: Is The Boy and the Heron another Miyazaki masterwork? I think so. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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