analysis of the menu (2022)
so I've watched the menu around 3 times. last time was last night with my stepsister and she of course loved the film. not the point.
here I am to talk about the extravagant clientele we are presented with and what each of them represent to the overall theme of the movie, about making art with obsession, not passion. I noticed quite early in the film how each and every client (except for margot) is making art and/or enjoying something not with actual happiness or love for the thing, but with cold, hard obssession or just because they need to. it's their thing now and they can't abandon it. let me explain with each client:
lilian bloom + ted
lilian bloom is a food critic, that at some point in her career opened the doors for many new chefs wanting to enter the industry, now we see in the tortillas all the restaurants she has closed. we see in her own behaviour how she looks for little stupid mistakes just to have something to complain about. is she enjoying the food? absolutely not, atleast not in the way she might have used to. she has lost the enjoyement of being a food critic, lost the joy out of eating, thus, she lost love for her craft. all is an obssession for mistakes and no real critique, and her friend/colleague only allows this filth to further settle itself by encouraging every word she speaks.
''the movie star'' and felicity.
fun fact: john leguizamo's character is the only major character without a name. he's only credited as a ''the movie star'' and nothing else, even though the girl he came with has a name. every character who takes more than 3 minutes in our screen has a name, except him. why? 'cause he's dr. sunshine. we're not supposed to know him as anything else but the man who starred in calling doctor sunshine, which on his own words: was a bad film with a bad script but fun to shoot anyways. his punishment is being only known for his worst film, or the film I would say he didn't take because he liked it, but because he needed money. it's obvious by the dialogue that his golden days of cinema have gone away, and now he's lost love and passion for his acting, not making any attempts to star in a good movie even if hes not the protagonist. no, no. he'd rather take bad roles with good money, and make bad stuff that will give him good money. you're not making movies with love anymore, you're making them with an obssesion for money in mind and that will follow you until you die.
felicity is the anti-thesis to this. she wants to stop working for him, she wants to do new things and is looking for new opportunities. that doesn't matter much though, because like ted to lilian, felicity has fed the filth inside the movie star long enough for the damage to already be done.
dave, bryce and soren.
these three are the bussinessmen who came here admittedly just for wasting money. they are young, ambitious and careless. like the tortillas exposed, they waste tons of money without the need to think if they're gonna make it to the end of the month, and they also make money in fraudulent manners. but no stress for them! they'll send the restaurant to court and they'll be just as fucked as they are. right? right? nope. instead they are met with the hard truth: they are money hungry pigs who do not care about the cost of their enjoyement, not only moneytarily, but at the cost of other people being harmed by it. they are the personification of modern day young ''self made'' millionaries who have taken away the love from art.
tyler
tyler's our co-star here, and you could even say he's the worst one of the clientele. knowing his faith and still accepting it because he is so obssesed with chef slowik and the theory part of cooking that he's willing to die for it. but hes nothing but a wannabe, a devourer. he hasn't cooked a day in his life. there's not much to say about him because his case is quite obvious: he represents the ruin of chef slowik's art more than anyone else in the room.
anne and richard
leaving my favorite for last. anne and richard are my favorites out of the clientele, because they represent everything I said in a very unique way. we know they're rich, they've come here 11 times for the past 5 years, and seemingly alot in their anniversaries.
the love they had is long gone though and it's incredibly one-sided. anne loves richard, but richard doesn't care anymore. he cares enough about anne to pretend he still loves her, but he stil seeks younger women to satisfy himself. whatever happened with their daughter claire broke them up. anne still has love in her, she remembers claire with a smile, richard just wants to forget about it oh so badly. richard is a representation of a lack of love, anne is a representation of love. that's why probably anne is the only character I felt that we were allowed to see outside of a window of hatred, she's kind to margot even after she knows what she did, he takes care of richard even after knowing he cheated, she's seems constantly worried for everyone and most importantly, gives a little nod to margot to leave.
at the end she, anne, says thank you to the chef- because somehow she is free now too. she knows what her husband did and can die with the truth instead of a lie.
that was my brief analysis of the menu (2022) and more especifically the characters.
I rate the movie 4.5 out of 5 stars. it's a cutthroat black comedy that is very aware of the fact that's comedic, and it's best moments are when it leans into the absurd.
