The Art Attic #1: The Menu

What makes me happy? Great art. When I watch a tight, sparkling movie or see a particularly breathtaking painting, I want to talk about it with everyone.

So I'm going to.

Hello, and welcome to the first addition of The Art Attic, where I brave the cobwebs to show you what art is rolling around in my head rent free. 

What drives your interest in a movie? The trailer? The stars? The memes? Usually, all I need to know is the premise and the cast. The Menu is set on an isolated island, and I adore an isolation premise. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy, three actors who have never let me down. Sold. Say less. 

The Menu (IMDB)

The movie opens with a couple, Tyler and Margot (Hoult and Taylor-Joy), on a dock waiting for a boat that is going to take them to a very exclusive, very expensive restaurant on an island. Tyler has a child-like excitement about edgy cuisine, the kind that serves froth and freshly harvested sea-things an inlander like me could not name. Margot is along for the ride. Other people -- a gaggle of finance bros, a food critic and magazine editor, an older couple (Judith Light!) that Margot tries to hide from, a waning movie star (John Leguizamo!) and his assistant -- arrive and they all pile into the boat, chatting and laughing about what the night might hold. 

From this point on, there will be mild spoilers because I cannot talk about how much I enjoyed this movie without telling you about the movie.

Readers, nothing good happens in an isolation premise. If everyone is stranded, at least one person is going to die, possibly all of them. This can be done brilliantly -- Cabin in the Woods, And Then There Were None -- or terribly -- Ten Dead Comedians and They All Fall Down were two of my recent reads that dared to ask “But what if And Then There Were None was bad?” Now why would I waste my time reading a book if I already know what the plot is? Because I want to know why. Why is The Host (it’s always The Host) trying to kill all of these people? What are their sins? How is The Host going to pull it off?  Does it make sense?

Our host is Chef Slowick (Ralph Fiennes), a critically lauded culinary genius on the cutting edge of farm-to-table and foraged cuisine. His meals are stories, and each member of his cult kitchen is ready with sharpened knives to tell the tale.

As the night wears on, each dish growing more sinister, the sins of the guests are slowly brought into the light. Except for Margot. Because Margot wasn’t supposed to be there. Chef Slowick cannot decide if she should die with those who consume or those who serve. He tells her privately that while he has no idea who she is, he knows an hourly wage slave when he sees one. 

And that’s why The Menu succeeds where other isolation tales fail. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if the audience agrees that the sins of the diners are worthy of death (they aren’t), because The Host is insane. The Host is always insane. The guests are always sinners ranging in light to horrific. The why in The Menu isn’t about them; it's about the very nature of art. 

To be a creative is to give of yourself. In many ways, creatives are servers, because what is life without art and music and food and fashion and the myriad other passions that drive us? To be a creative is to lay yourself bare and vulnerable.

And then there are consumers. Clearly, we want people to appreciate our output, but there is a certain type of consumer who demands content  with no thought into what you have given, no care for the skill, the materials, the burnout. And when you have spent yourself giving and giving, they complain that you maybe weren't that talented to begin with and they move on to the next creative to consume.

So watch The Menu, think about those creative people who improve life, give the servers a break, and be happy Chappell Roan isn't making s’mores.