Entertainment
Anya Taylor-Joy’s $80 Million Brutally Dark Comedy Just Landed a Free Streaming Home
If you’ve been craving a second helping of The Menu — or you somehow missed the cultural moment when everyone was quoting “Enjoy… the mess” — good news: The Anya Taylor-Joy–led thriller is now streaming for free on Tubi. The 2022 hit, which grossed over $80 million worldwide, remains one of the most stylish, twisted, and darkly funny films Taylor-Joy has ever made.
Directed by Mark Mylod (Succession) and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu follows Margot (Taylor-Joy) and her date Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) as they arrive on a remote island for an ultra-exclusive dining experience curated by world-renowned chef Julian Slowik, played with chilling precision by Ralph Fiennes. What starts as a pretentious foodie paradise quickly devolves into a meticulously crafted nightmare — one served in courses.
The film skewers elite culture, food-world pretension, and the parasitic relationship between art and audience, all while keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. With its ruthless humor and razor-sharp tension, The Menu became an instant standout among modern dark comedies. The ensemble — including Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo — only adds flavor to the feast.
Collider’s review wasn’t quite as convinced, with a C rating being dished up following a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. There was criticism over similarities to previous works by Fiennes, and a film that felt repetitive:
“While Fiennes is able to bring an appropriate sense of menace with just a single stare, it feels like a repeat of his film The Forgiven from earlier this year. Both that and now this one try to coast off his performance while gesturing at a more grand vision. What makes this most recent work more perplexing is just how much it aimlessly wanders without any driving force or direction.
Running at an hour and forty-six minutes, it ends up feeling far longer than that in just how repetitive it is. While much of this may be due to the confined setting and lack of variety in the visuals, even when there is a sequence set outside it lacks any sort of spark. There is the constant of the meals that keep getting brought out that all vaguely mean something, though we understand the game and where it is all going pretty quickly.”
The Menu begins streaming on Tubi next month. Enjoy your cheeseburger.
- Release Date
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November 18, 2022
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Mark Mylod
- Writers
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Seth Reiss, Will Tracy
