The Menu

"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 ...

You can watch "The Menu" for free by scoring a free trial to HBO Max through Amazon Prime Video. You can preorder "The Menu" on Blu-ray through retailers like [Amazon](https://affiliate.insider.com/?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60219-20&postID=63b47e6caa849926161cb2aa&site=bi&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMenu-Feature-Nicholas-Hoult%2Fdp%2FB0BQ7H3F1D&vikingID=63b47e6caa849926161cb2aa&platform=browser&sc=false&disabled=false) for $20. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. The trial is only available to new HBO members. 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. [Blu-ray](https://affiliate.insider.com/?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60219-20&postID=63b47e6caa849926161cb2aa&site=bi&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMenu-Feature-Nicholas-Hoult%2Fdp%2FB0BQ7H3F1D&vikingID=63b47e6caa849926161cb2aa&platform=browser&sc=false&disabled=false) starting January 17. In the US, the film's subscription streaming rights are currently held by HBO Max. The movie is also available to purchase from digital retailers like Amazon for $15. 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. Both plans grant access to the full HBO Max library including feature films, exclusive shows, and originals. 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 horror satire can be streamed on

Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and Ralph Fiennes in a delicious skewering of the upper class.

The Menu is a thrilling skewering of the upper class, directed by Mark Mylod and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Fiennes, John Leguizamo, Judith Light, Hong Chau. Twelve customers total, $1,250 a head, a whole lot of mouth feels, and an underlying sense of unease. After a successful theatrical run and fresh out of theaters, you can feast upon this in the comfort of your own home, thanks to HBO Max.

The film's premise is not complex—a group of hand-picked elite guests arrives on a private island for a dining experience at celebrity chef Julian Slowik's ...

The outcome would still be the same, he points out, and Margot would still die at the end, but the only difference would be that she would be on the team of chefs and servers when it happened. Besides, Margot is not really part of the group that Slowik wants to make his plan against, and he also does not seem to mind that she gets away. And so, to somehow reach this eternal position, he makes himself part of Slowik’s dinner plan and shoots himself dead in front of the guests as part of the show. It is very possible to believe that Slowik knew she would escape from the very beginning, but he also enjoyed the fact that there was this individual ready to call him out and outright challenge his reputation. The important fact is that she has successfully escaped the death trap island, and that too by dismissing Julian Slowik’s expertise. Instead of any usual rendition of it, the chef and his team prepare the exact dish on a large scale, making the guests wear marshmallows on their bodies and chocolate hats on their heads. Now, she reveals she was the one to have proposed the idea of keeping death as a part of the menu, and as part of the show, she stabs Slowik in his leg as well. There is also a very evident feeling of Slowik’s ego being a crucial aspect behind his actions, for the man is also part of the culinary elitism that he so much hates. To Slowik, this is a clear indication that the people he tries to please do not even take notice of the art that he is creating. Such negligence toward art was something that he did not wish to tolerate, and George Diaz was a fine example of it. Margot is indirectly reminded time and again that she is not supposed to have this experience. “The Menu” is certainly an unusual film in some aspects; it is fulfilling to watch and leaves you pondering for long.

The Menu stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult as guests at an upscale restaurant run by the enigmatic celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). But the ...

We know it makes us really crave for a cheeseburger, but what does it actually mean in the context of the movie? She discovers a photo in Slowik's house of himself as a young fast-food chef, along with a radio which she uses to call the coast guard. Charmed by her antics, Slowik gives her a take-out box and Margot leaves, with one final nod of encouragement from Anne. Slowik corners Margot in the women's bathroom and discovers her secret: she's a sex worker named Erin who Tyler hired as his date. While they're being caught, the women commiserate in the restaurant and we learn that Erin/Margot had meetings with Richard where he lived out a fantasy of his daughter not having died. But the exclusive dinner they've signed up for isn't what it appears, and soon all the guests find themselves fighting for their lives.

But things aren't what they seem: celebrity chef Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes) instead plans to kill all of his unfortunate guests by the end of the ...

The Menu” is a dark comedy horror film that keeps one in suspense for the whole runtime and trumps expectations with its sublime plot.

Margot is indirectly reminded time and again that she is not supposed to have this experience. It is also soon revealed that Margot was not originally on the invited list and had only taken the place of another woman who was supposed to accompany Tyler. From this very instance, Margot starts to realize that her partner Tyler is almost blindly devotional towards the celebrity chef running the restaurant, Chef Julian Slowik.

See Ralph Fiennes' killer chef explain why he's targeting two of his customers in this exclusive clip from the black comedy, now streaming on HBO Max.

Two of the diners at Hawthorn are George Diaz (John Leguizamo), a washed-up actor, and Felicity (Aimee Carrero), his assistant/girlfriend. [Nicholas Hoult](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/the-great-hulu-review-elle-fanning-995968/) as his [food](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/food/)-influencer sub. [Anya Taylor-Joy](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/anya-taylor-joy-downtown-cover-1244814/)’s wide-eyed final girl. And they’ve all been chosen for a specific reason (sort of). [Ralph Fiennes](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/ralph-fiennes/) as a kinky, authoritarian chef. Tyler idolizes Slowik, who introduces each course of his meticulously-constructed (or deconstructed) meal with a thunderous clap, followed by a florid monologue explaining its import.

Mark Mylod's film, "The Menu" apparently follows a couple, Tyler and Margot, to the restaurant (named Hawthorne) owned by celebrity chef Julian Slowik, ...

And here’s the kicker, as Julian thinks he and Erin are one and the same, I am guessing that he sees her liberation as the one good deed of his miserable life. The backstory allows Erin to disarm Julian, and the call to the fake coast guard proves that Erin wants to live and hasn’t fully submitted to his shtick. The editing, some of the cinematography, the production design, and the culinary moments are worthy of applause. And as Erin makes her way to the speedboat that the coast guard brought in, Julian turns the restaurant, the cooks, the customers, and himself into a s’mores-based dish, and everything goes up in flames. The problem with the film lies in the fact that Julian sees a bit of himself in Margot and sees himself as somebody who has been oppressed by the wheel of classism and capitalism. Secondly, as he starts to understand that there’s no way for him to make her eat his food because of her dogged determination to not conform to his rules, he paves the way for her liberation. When that line is drawn, we understand that in that room, Julian thinks he’s the oppressor, and his customers are the ones who need to be oppressed. It seems like he fully expects her to deviate from her task, go to his house, learn about his backstory, and call for help (the coast guard who arrives turns out to be a member of the staff too). Firstly, he wants to deconstruct her because, unlike the rest of his customers, he doesn’t know her backstory, and that’s ruining his final meal. Margot is the odd one out, and that’s why she’s given a choice to die with the customers or with the cooks. On the one day that Julian wasn’t working, he went to watch George’s movie, and he didn’t like it. Somewhere along the halfway point of “The Menu,” Julian makes it obvious that this is going to be his and his customers’ final meal.

Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy) agrees to go on an unusual sort of date with Tyler (Nicholas Hoult)—a dinner at a super prestigious, super exclusive, ...

He asks what she wants to eat, and—remembering the photo she saw in his room—she responds she wants a cheeseburger. The final course, “dessert,” is a human “s’more.” Everyone is wrapped in a marshmallow straight jacket, and the staff lights the entire restaurant on fire. Because Margot is here by mistake—and because Chef sees her as a fellow “server”—Chef gives her the option of siding either with the staff or the guests. Meanwhile, the rest of the guests are still left to die. After a fight to the death with the maître d’, Margot breaks into Chef’s private quarters. Chef intends to humiliate Tyler by demonstrating in front of everyone that a soft boy like that may know all the names of the kitchen utensils, but he doesn’t know the first thing about actually cooking in a restaurant kitchen. Chef asks Tyler to cook the next course. As Margot and Tyler travel on the boat to this island, we get to know the other patrons they will be dining alongside. Margot is bemused by the snobbery of it all, but Tyler is deeply moved. If you didn’t get a chance to catch the movie in theaters in the fall, it’s certainly worth a stream on HBO Max. That said, even without the consumption of human flesh, there are plenty of sick, twisted, and disturbing aspects of The Menu plot. But the patrons of the restaurant on this particular night are in for so much more than just a ridiculously expensive meal.

Culinary thriller The Menu went down a treat with audiences and critics alike, so here's how you can watch it on Disney Plus and HBO Max.

[subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article). [Film](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/) coverage or visit our [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) and [Streaming Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/streaming-guide/) to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the [Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Menu-Nicholas-Hoult/dp/B0BQ7H3F1D/?tag=radtim0b-21&ascsubtag=radiotimes-1763331). [here are the latest deals and how to get Disney Plus free](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/technology-deals/disney-plus-offers/). [HBO Max](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/hbo-max-uk-launch/). [terms and conditions](https://www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/) and [privacy policy](https://policies.immediate.co.uk/privacy/). [Sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year](https://disneyplus.bn5x.net/c/1236178/564546/9358?subId1=radiotimes-1760373&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.disneyplus.com%2Fen-gb). [learn more](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/commercial-links-on-radiotimes-com/)) [RadioTimes.com](https://www.radiotimes.com) they hope [The Menu makes audiences' "stomachs hurt a little"](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/anya-taylor-joy-nicholas-hoult-big-rt-interview/). [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Menu-Ralph-Fiennes/dp/B0B6RNJX6H) and other digital retailers – although you'll have to wait a little longer for the UK release. [Subscribe to Radio Times magazine and get 12 issues for £1](https://www.radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription/?utm_term=evergreen-article)

A satire about what's wrong with the food world, The Menu explores the restaurant industry, foodie culture, food media, and their relationships to one another.

As Screen Rant theorizes, "Putting two patties on the grill, one is reminded of the two people that killed themselves in the kitchen early on—Tyler and Slowik's sous-chef." Perhaps the meat in Margot's burger was aged too long and killed her. Perhaps it made out of the sous-chef and Tyler, the restaurant-obsessed foodie who had paid her to be his date, knowing beforehand that everyone would die as part of the menu. Slowik and his team repeatedly say that this is all part of the menu. Mid-film, we find out that everyone—diners, staff, and even Chef Slowik—are going to die as part of the meal. A satire about what's wrong with the food world, The Menu explores the restaurant industry, foodie culture, food media, and their relationships to one another.

A storytelling-through-food event prompted the screenwriters of The Menu to come up with the movie's idea.

It is common for many people to have misconceptions about the food industry and what it means to be a top chef. Therefore, it is fascinating to see how the story behind The Menu explores these concepts while breaking down myths and the pressure of being a cook. In his words, the storytelling-through-food event made him feel claustrophobic in a way similar to the movie, where guests were "held hostages" for several hours during each course of meals. "The restaurant was not Fäviken, but like Fäviken.There’s something relentless about all of these tasting menus. [Bon Appétit](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-menu-movie-creators-interview), screenwriters Will Tracy and Seth Reiss explained how a true story inspired the plot of The Menu. Director Mark Mylod previously worked on shows like Game of Thrones and Succession before helming The Menu.

Irv's Burgers has commenced a very cool collaboration with Searchlight Pictures and its 2022 film The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes.

[competed on a recent episode](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm9XwJkpjDN/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D) of Chopped on Food Network. Click [here to see the outcome](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm_21q0rvWc/) of the competition on Turner’s Instagram. Searchlight is collaborating with Irv’s to help promote the [release of the film](https://www.searchlightpictures.com/the-menu/) on Blu-ray (on January 17, which comes with plenty of extra content and behind-the-scenes footage) as well as digital download, released yesterday. El Cholo’s flagship location on Western Avenue represents a century-long history of a Los Angeles legend. [commenced a very cool collaboration](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmw1WBApH1O/) with Searchlight Pictures and its 2022 film [The Menu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZKMBROJFro), starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes. And just like the movie, the burger special comes with two griddled patties, thinly shaved onions, American cheese, special sauce, and pickles on a plush sesame seed bun.