We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
The year gets off to a thrilling start.
THE MENU (2022)
I first heard of the “darkly comedic horror thriller” The Menu about four years ago, at a time when it was announced that Will Ferrell would be producing the movie alongside Adam McKay, with The Descendants Oscar winner Alexander Payne on board to direct. Soon after, Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes signed on to star in the film... but as time went on, Payne and Stone both ended up leaving the project. Stone was replaced by Anya Taylor-Joy, Ali G Indahouse director Mark Mylod took over as director, but Fiennes stuck with The Menu through the change of director and lead actress, and all the way through production.
I was always very curious about The Menu, since it was a horror project coming from people who are known for comedy. This was something different for writers Will Tracy and Seth Reiss as well, since their most prominent previous credits were for providing jokes to late night talk shows. The script’s details were kept secret, we were only told the story dealt with “an acclaimed chef who has prepared a lavish tasting menu with some shocking surprises.” I assumed we were in store for a movie about cannibalism. But as it turns out, The Menu isn’t about humans eating humans. It is, however, a really entertaining thriller with some comedic elements and great performances.
Taylor-Joy plays Margot, who is a last minute replacement date for Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) as he heads out to Hawthorn, a restaurant on a private island where it costs $1500 to get a seat. The head chef at Hawthorn is Julian Slowik (Fiennes), and just like the synopsis promised, Slowik and his cooks have put together a very strange tasting menu... and some of their high profile diners are not going to survive the night.
This movie was released long after I first heard about it, but its release actually came along at just the right time for me. That’s because I have recently been watching a lot of cooking shows on Netflix, I’ve seen the unusual dishes that are prepared for situations like the ones at Hawthorn, so I could see how well The Menu parodies those things. You have people like Tyler fawning over the genius of these pretentious, unfulfilling dishes, while Margot refuses to eat most of the ridiculous things that are set in front of her. But as odd as the dishes get, they still ring true to what I’ve seen on those cooking shows. That is, until things get violent and deadly.
The Menu was a much better, more entertaining movie that I ever imagined it was going to be. It was smart and fun, and left me – and, from what I hear, many other viewers – craving a good, old fashioned double cheeseburger with crinkle-cut fries.
NO EXIT (2022)
Taylor Adams’ novel No Exit was one of the most thrilling books I read last year, a gripping page-turner that had me eager to see what was going to happen next every step of the way. It would have been very easy to bring that story to the screen exactly as it was written... but for some reason, the cinematic adaptation No Exit received decided to simplify things that worked much better on the page while wasting some of its 95 minutes on complications that weren’t in the book.
The first unnecessary change is right up front. In the book, lead character Darby Thorne is a college student who risks driving through a blizzard because she has heard that her mom has been hospitalized. She needs to make it back home to see her. Darby (played by Havana Rose Liu) is on her way to visit her mom in the movie as well, but here she’s locked up in a rehab center and has to escape – and steal a car – so she can hit the road. So while the book was able to begin with Darby already on the road so we could get to the point quicker, the movie wastes over 8 minutes on the rehab scenario.
As in the book, Darby ends up stranded at a rest stop with five people: young men Ash (Danny Ramirez) and Lars (David Rysdahl), middle-aged couple Ed (Dennis Haysbert) and Sandi (Dale Dickey), and Jay (Mila Harris), a young girl who has been kidnapped by someone Darby is stuck at the rest stop with and is being held captive in a van out in the parking lot. Darby has to figure out who the criminal among them is and how to save Jay, which leads to some moderately thrilling sequences. But the movie isn’t nearly as interesting or thrilling as the book was.
Director Damien Power and screenwriters Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari delivered an okay thriller that’s a decent way to spend 95 minutes, but Adams’ could have and should have been turned into a much better movie than this. Maybe we’ll get another adaptation sometime down the line that will do a better job of bringing the story to the screen.
THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD (2021)
In the midst of masterminding the Yellowstone franchise and other TV shows, Taylor Sheridan also somehow found the time to direct the action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, which he wrote with Charles Leavitt and Michael Koryta – who also wrote the novel the film is based on. Angelina Jolie stars as smokejumping firefighter Hannah, who is now stationed in a lookout tower in Montana as she deals with the post-traumatic stress of a tragic forest fire situation. So of course Hannah finds herself in the middle of another forest fire as the film’s story plays out.
Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult play Jack and Patrick, a pair of cold-blooded assassins who are first introduced blowing up a house with a family, including an off-screen crying baby, inside of it. So we know these guys are willing to kill anyone they cross paths with and will do so without remorse. (Coincidentally, Sheridan also co-wrote the screenplay for the Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse.) Jack and Patrick have been tasked with murdering forensic accountant Owen (Jake Weber), who has unearthed information that could be very damaging to high profile individuals. Knowing that his life is in danger, Owen hits the road with his young son Connor (Finn Little), hoping to seek shelter with his police officer brother-in-law Ethan (Jon Bernthal) in Montana.
Jack and Patrick manage to kill Owen once he reaches Montana, but Connor manages to escape into the forest, where he meets Hannah. While pursuing the kid, Jack and Patrick use flares to light a massive forest fire, which will be burning all around them as they attempt to kill Connor. And Hannah fights to protect them. Ethan also gets pulled into the situation, as does his pregnant wife Allison (Medina Senghore) – who happens to run a survival school, so she’s capable of defending herself even in her delicate condition. But that doesn’t make the movie any less tense, because we known how ruthless Jack and Patrick are.
I wasn’t blown away by Those Who Wish Me Dead, but I had a fine time watching it. It’s a decent thriller, worth checking out.
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