The Menu / YMMV - TV Tropes

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Tyler coming to the restaurant, even when he knows that everyone present is going to get killed. Is he just such a fanatic that he'll do anything to taste Slowik's cooking, or did he believe that he could win Slowik over and convince the chef to let him live?
- Julian having his mother present during his last meal. Is it because he hates her and wants to punish her for her alcoholism and neglect? Or because he loves her and, knowing she's an alcoholic and that the aftermath of his death will hurt her, commits a Mercy Kill? Supporting the former interpretation, it is mentioned at the beginning of the film by Tyler that they take twelve customers a night total. However, there are a total of eleven people brought in by boat. Which makes Slowik's mother, who is seated in the dining area, the twelfth person. A "taker".
- Is Richard actually attracted to his daughter, or is he just into the taboo nature of the incest role-play? The fact that he apparently told Margot to say he's a good man during their session implies that he feels guilty about this fetish. It's also possible that he hired Margot as a way to avoid acting out his feelings on his daughter, which may be even more disturbing.
- Anne not remembering any meals at Hawthorn could be because of the stress of watching her husband's finger cut off and Jeremy's suicide. Or she might even be right about the cod, and Slowik is just messing with her to justify his pre-determined decision.
- As Julian himself points out, the guests didn't really put up much of a fight to escape. Why? Were they just simply not wanting to risk trying to fight off a bunch of knife-wielding cooks who follow Julian's every order and clearly outnumbered them? Or were they slaves to the social script that dictates you don't make a scene in a proper fine dining setting? Or were they just simply bewildered by the fact that they were now in a situation they couldn't just buy their way out of? Or were they all, on a deep subconscious level, aware that they're terrible people and believe they deserve their deaths? Some mixture of all those? In fairness, other than the deeply cowardly finance bros and one guy 100% ok with getting killed, most of the guests are pretty frail and incapable of any sort of meaningful violence. The Liebbrandts are old and trying to escape already resulted in the husband losing a finger, Lillian is a middle aged woman, Felicity probably doesn't even know how to throw a punch, Ted's a complete milquetoast, and George doesn't look like a guy that hold his own in a fight.
  - Beyond the knives (which, should be pointed out, the staff uses immediately on the Liebbrandts as they attempt to escape) they have at least one gun. So why didn't a disorganized bunch of scared people put up a fight against a better armed brigade that outnumbers them, is used to work together and planned everything in advance? Who knows.
- Katherine's meal starts with her telling everyone that Julian tried to have sex with her, and treated her poorly for refusing him. She then stabs him in the leg. Julian himself fully goes along with this and even seems to approve. Dedication to the meal, not caring since he was going to die anyway, or some level of remorse for his actions? Furthermore, why did Katherine hug Julian just before stabbing him? Is it because she's still a brainwashed cultist devoted to Julian despite her anger at him? Or has she decided to forgive him? If the latter, did she forgive because they're both about to die, or because she feels like now they're even?
Award Snub: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Hong Chau did not get Academy Award nominations for their acclaimed performances in The Menu^note, and the film's screenplay didn't get a nomination either.
Catharsis Factor: After spending the majority of the movie being an elitist, charlatan, and extraordinarily callous human being, seeing Tyler being ferociously humiliated by Slowik can be a treat; especially when it renders him into a near-catatonic (and suicidal) state.
Friendly Fandoms: Due to the three films' shared satire and critique of the elite and wealthy as well as all of them coming out in 2022, fans of The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, and Glass Onion get along very well. So much so that the three movies have been dubbed by some as "2022's Eat the Rich Trilogy".
Harsher in Hindsight: Or Hilarious in Hindsight depending on how you view it, but the movie's digital release came just a few days before Noma, an iconic fine dining restaurant whose traits (locally sourced ingredients, an exclusive clientele, and an aura of rigidity and formality) likely inspired or at least parallel Hawthorn, announced that it would close down (the linked article incidentally mentions criticisms of Noma for mistreating and underpaying its workers, much like the oppressive work environment of Hawthorn's kitchen, though this problem is a pervasive one throughout the food industry). This makes the finale, where the restaurant and everyone in it is destroyed, a slightly uncomfortable parallel.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Early on, George pitches an idea for a travel show to Felicity, who can't even pretend to be enthusiastic about it. A few months after the movie came out, John Leguizamo's own travel show, Leguizamo Does America, premiered to excellent reviews.
Informed Wrongness: Many of the dishes aren't nearly as cerebral as Margot laments, chicken breast and ossobuco are perfectly normal parts that she just doesn't eat. Even the starting oyster is not as sophisticated as she laments, and before everything else happens the breadless sauces are actually a pretty funny joke. While for later courses she can be excused by being too shocked by what's happening, her refusal to eat up to that point comes off as her being needlessly antagonistic and picky rather than Slovik being overly cerebral. The reveal of her being a high-end escort paid to join a foodie for dinner doesn't help, as it clashes with her behavior and makes it seem even more forced.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Julian Slowik is obviously the villain of The Menu. However, being a bit over-the-top makes it rather difficult to have any real hatred for him. Examples include him holding a meticulously planned evening where he's going to kill everyone present with equally absurd courses. And in the end it becomes apparent that he does have enough heart to let Erin leave after she proves herself to him. Tyler, on the other hand, is pretentious, elitist, dismissive of Margot's concerns and brought an escort, Erin, to the evening to fill in as his ex-girlfriend, Margot, fully knowing that everyone would die that evening. When he gets the chance to make a dish himself, it soon turns out that he's an even worse cook than foodie.
Memetic Mutation:
- "You will notice there are no turkeys in the movie. This is because in the film Free Birds the two turkeys went back in time to the first thanksgiving to get turkeys off The Menu" ^Explanation
- A shot of Slowik whispering something to a dejected Tyler's ear which then causes him to commit suicide has found traction as an exploitable.
Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Despite being a caricature of chefs, many real-life chefs have actually spoken highly of Julian Slowik. Specifically, they have spoken about how they relate to his frustrations of turning his passion into a miserable chore and his anger for feeding customers who do not appreciate what he cooks for them by only using his cooking as a means of boosting their status.
Moment of Awesome: Margot has two big ones.
- One when Elsa confronts her at Julian's cottage. Margot left a knife on a nearby table, which Elsa picks up and uses to attack her. Margot takes advantage of the fact that they're in a fully-equipped kitchen and uses everything in it to fight back and take her down. Then later finds a radio and calls for help.
- After having an epiphany, Margot gets back at Julian by brutally criticizing every dish he served, calling him out on his pretentiousness, and demanding a different meal: a simple cheeseburger. Julian is clearly so impressed that he agrees, and then lets her leave after Margot subtly asks.
  Margot: When I eat your food, it tastes like it was made with no love.
  Slowik: Oh, this is ridiculous. We always cook with love, don't we? Everyone knows love is the most important ingredient.
  Margot: Then you're kidding yourself. Come on, Chef; I thought tonight was a night of hard home truths, this is one of them: you cook with obsession, not love. Even your hot dishes are cold. You're a chef. Your single purpose on this Earth is to serve people food that they might actually like, and you have failed. You've failed, and you've bored me. And the worst part is? I'm still fucking hungry.
Moral Event Horizon: While Chef Julian aims to kill everyone who he felt personally contributed to his misery, he has many mitigating factors, including sparing Margot at the end. As for the others:
- Tyler at first comes across as a Jerkass for caring more about his experience eating Slowik's food despite people dying around him, but he becomes truly irredeemable when he reveals that he knew the entire time what Slowik was planning but invited Margot, an innocent woman, with him anyway because Hawthorn did not book single customers. Even Slowik is disgusted with him.
- While she was a victim of sexual harassment and demeaning kitchen work, Katherine happily reveals that it was her plan for everyone to be killed at the end of the night. That includes her fellow sous-chefs and the diners, even though they never wronged her.
Narm: The whole cheeseburger scene. The speech before it's an extremely generic tirade contradicted by what we have seen in the movie (since there was perfectly normal food among the courses, which Margot refused to eat for no real reason), the scene itself tries way too hard, looking more like a fast food commercial than anything else.
- The very last scene, Margot using the menu as an improptu towel. The symbolism is just too blatant and redundant, and the fact that her lips are perfectly clean doesn't help.
Narm Charm: Margot ordering a cheeseburger at Hawthorn. Not only does it show that she has had enough of exclusive dining, it also allows her to leave. It's humorous in theory but it works incredibly well, mainly due to Slowik being visibly moved by being asked to cook something that reminds him of a time when he was genuinely happy, along with the cooking of the burger itself being lovely shown in exquisite detail.
Signature Scene: The ending where all the guests are dressed as S’mores before being set on fire.
Squick: Richard's sexual fantasy, where he masturbates to Margot reassuring him that he's a good man while role-playing as his daughter. The fact that Annie points out how much she looks like their daughter, and Richard has done this with multiple women, makes this even worse.
The Woobie:
- Anne is the most sympathetic of all the guests, aside from Margot. Her only "crime" is not remembering any of the previous dishes that she had at Hawthorn despite having come 11 times with her husband (who also has the added crimes of at least one affair, presumably more since it doesn't appear that Margot was the girl on his tortilla). She even encourages Margot to leave when Julian chooses to let her go, despite subtly knowing that her husband has a likely sexual history with her. This is possibly because Margot resembles her and Richard's dead daughter. Sadly, she dies along with everyone else still in the building.
- George. While he does seem a little crooked and egotistical at first, it's later revealed that the only reason why he's there is because Julian saw a bad movie on his day off, and George happened to be the main actor. He even points out that he didn't direct the movie, but Julian dismisses this based on the fact that George still chose the role. He is crooked, because he has an apartment his wife doesn't know about which he uses for one night stands, uses drugs and gives a subpar acting performance for enough cash (implying he is a fraud, in a way) but despite that it's clear that, just like Anne and Margot, he doesn't deserve to be there.
- Felicity, George's assistant, is only there because George is. When George even tries to get Slowik to spare her, he marks her for death on the basis she went to Brown and has no student loans. The logic for her death? She is an enabler for George, so whatever small bad things George did to deserve place at the table, Felicity as his assistant enabled it.
- Jeremy. While Julian claims that his despair is due to realizing he will never be as great as Julian, considering how broken and shaken Jeremy looks, and how Julian callously degrades him in front of the diners, it appears more like he has been Driven to Suicide by his mentor after years of abuse.

YMMV / The Menu

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