I watched The Menu this weekend. It was a movie I’d wanted to watch for some time after watching a review on a YouTube channel that breaks down the cinematography, sound, and direction of movies. Given the dearth of movies that I actually watch, it may seem strange that I watch videos about the artistry of movies. So be it; that’s what I enjoy. This is another one of the movies I’ve watched and now written about that is not for children or the squeamish.

The Menu is about an ultra-exclusive restaurant set on its own private island, the chef, the staff, and the diners. Through a single service, a single tasting menu, we are shown the mind of the chef and so many of the things that are flawed in the world of fancy restaurants. For regular readers, you’ll remember not too long ago that I wrote about another chef-related movie (Hunger) from Thailand. The two actually pair nicely and speak to many of the same deeper themes through the lens of haute cuisine.

At a more fundamental level, The Menu is a film about obsession and the state of humanity after postmodern deconstruction has wreaked havoc. The most poignant moment of the film is the response that Anya Taylor-Joy offers to the results of this nihilism playing out before her. It does not rise to the level of Alyosha interacting with his brother Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov (almost nothing does), but it is a flickering candle of hope that perhaps some of the magic of life can still be restored. I already knew the plot before watching the film but won’t spoil it for any readers who might be interested as I would have enjoyed the experience even more had I not known what was coming next. Even then, it was a film that rose and rose and rose up to its crescendo and then landed nicely in its dénouement.