A young couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises. The dark comedy is written by Seth Reiss & Will Tracy, and directed by Mark Mylod.
For in-depth thoughts on The Menu, please see my colleague Kelly Kantrowitz’s review from the Toronto International Film Festival here.
Video Quality
The film debuts on Blu-Ray courtesy of Searchlight Pictures with a gorgeous 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio that captures the film extremely well. While a 4K UHD Blu-Ray would have been excellent, this presentation impresses consistently. The movie itself has a natural color palette with splashes of bold colors at key moments which this transfer handles brilliantly. There is also a great amount of detail and clarity throughout the entire presentation. The fine detail that is detectable on faces is quite remarkable. Viewers are bound to also delight in the stunning shots of food that are so integral to the narrative.
Roaming shots remain stable and avoid any blurring or banding. As night falls throughout the meal the tension begins to build, which is aided by deep black levels. Objects hold up very well in the shadows and retain their depth, although most important elements are given a spotlight. There is no damage, black crush or digital noise detectable in this transfer. This is a supremely impressive transfer from Searchlight Pictures that allows this brand new film to thrive at a high bit rate and deliver a problem-free viewing experience.
Audio Quality
The Menu comes to Blu-Ray with an outstanding DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. The movie is mostly on the quiet side with bursts of activity when a bit of chaos is introduced to the meal. The low end of the track is especially active during a handful of key moments, but mostly it thrives when music is involved. Dialogue and sound effects are appropriately balanced with the score and musical tracks where nothing gets lost in the mix. Surround channels get some nice activity from the food being prepared in the background. This is a film that is immensely satisfying from a sound design perspective. The directionality of this track is on point with sounds coming from all of the appropriate places. This track is quite powerful, and will be appreciated by horror fans who pick up this disc. There are optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles provided.
Special Features
- Open Kitchen – A Look Inside The Menu: A pretty interesting three-part making-of featurette totaling nearly 18 minutes in which the cast and crew discuss bringing the story to life, creating the courses for the meal, assembling the main cast and the kitchen staff, the challenging nature of some of the ensemble performances, the shooting locations, the production design and more. There are a lot of really fascinating insights that are worth exploring.
- Deleted Scenes: There are three unused scenes totaling five minutes provided here which are mostly spelling out things that the movie allows you to piece together in the theatrical version such as Lillian’s relationship to Slowik, the intrigue around the meal and more.
Final Thoughts
The Menu is a terrifically devious satire which takes aim at various strands of elitist culture and excoriates it in a most satisfying manner. The setup is not altogether groundbreaking, but it is executed in such a finely crafted manner that it feels fresh. The entire ensemble is fulfilling their roles perfectly with nary a false note in the bunch. The film is simply a lot of fun with a clever message and great execution. Searchlight Pictures has given this film a Blu-Ray featuring a wonderful A/V presentation and decent selection of special features. If you love pitch black social satire with a horror twist, strap in and enjoy this ride. Highly Recommended
The Menu will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 17, 2023. The film is currently available to purchase on Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.