‘The Menu – Ralph Fiennes celeb-chef horror comedy cooks up nasty surprise’ was the Guardian headline for their review of this film which opens in Aix tomorrow.
Indeed the first half shows Ralph Fiennes on intimidating form as the star chef welcoming his guests fresh off the boat from the mainland, greedily anticipating their seven-course meal. He’s surrounded by ‘Yes Chef!’-style kitchen staff, carefully moulding, piping, teasing tiny ingredients into plated submission to formally present to each guest. But wait, aren’t they all adept with those menacingly sharp knives, isn’t the front-of-house manager (Hong Chau over Ralph’s shoulder in the poster) getting increasingly dictatorial, isn’t super-chef becoming increasingly deranged…and yikes, there’s no boat back to the mainland tonight.
It goes from comedy in the form of sending up the whole foodie scene, to menace, to horror, with ‘Succession’ scriptwriters providing some great lines. How are they going to end this? I kept wondering. No spoilers here. It opens tomorrow at the Cézanne.
aixcentric 
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