The Favourite
2018
No review provided.
The Menu
2022
While Anya Taylor-Joy certainly dazzles as The Menu’s protagonist, her impressive performance is left in the dust by Ralph Fiennes’ monstrous, hilarious, and perfectly spiteful Julian Slowik.
Fiennes’ recurrent monologues, the narrative core of the meal, serve up a delightful tension. In many ways, Slowik is shown to typify integral aspects of the elite culture he resents: do not eat, he begs his diners, but taste, savour, relish. Concurrently, his menu serves up on an impassioned, absurdist, and endlessly amusing critique of elite dining, allowing him too the opportunity to lambast the insulated arrogance of critics, the wealthy, and ‘foodies’ alike.
The relative simplicity of The Menu‘s social commentary does not detract from its impact. The one-dimensional hauteur of Fiennes’ guests only accents the delectable absurdity of his character and menu, and renders the absurdist satire integral to the film both more legible and more amusing. The Menu is a gourmet delicacy – a blissful balance of tension and merriment, combining a richly talented cast with a compelling story and refined message – all accompanied by a light, choral, and deliciously dissonant soundtrack courtesy of the brilliant Colin Stetson. It is a menu truly to die for.
Motherland
2016 – 2022
No review provided.
The Father
2021
No review provided.
Knives Out
2019
No review provided.
The Death of Stalin
2017
No review provided.
The Two Popes
2019
No review provided.