- Directed by Mark Mylod
- Written by Seth Reiss, Will Tracy
- Stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTkUGcHv4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Course by course, this delicious movie unfolds. There’s lots of dark humor, social commentary, impotent rage, and outright horror. It’s got a strong cast and good direction, and it’s a winner.
Synopsis
Margot and Tyler talk about tonight. He tells her not to smoke, as that’ll ruin her palette for later. There will be less than a dozen people there, and it’s super-expensive. They take a boat to an island with several famous influencers and powerful people. Tyler is really, really into food, and Margot is fairly normal. He’s very uptight about the experience they are about to have and doing everything right.
Upon arrival, Elsa the hostess takes the group on a quick overview of Hawthorne Island. It’s all very pretentious. There’s a whole staff who live on the island, and they all live for cooking. “Chef holds himself to the highest standard, and so do we,” Elsa brags.
Everyone there knows all the guests’ names. Margot is there as a “replacement date” for Tyler, and the Chef looks at her with concern; she’s a change he wasn’t informed about. As they eat, we see that most of the guests are rich, pretentious snobs. Tyler tells Margot how he idolizes Chef.
Chef Julian Slowik introduces himself and explains how the evening will proceed. “Do not eat. Taste.” Tyler tears up listening to Chef’s beautiful speech. After a fancy seafood dish, they get the “breadless bread plate.” Tyler is a fanboy, and Margot is trying to understand it all. When Margot doesn’t touch her imaginary bread, Chef comes over and asks what the problem is.
An older couple keeps looking at Margot, she says Margot seems familiar, but the man insists they don’t know her. It’s obvious to us that he does know her. Chef tells a story about stabbing his father in the leg with kitchen scissors to defend his abused mother. Then they serve a chicken thigh with scissors stuck in it.
Next up are personalized tortillas with embarrassing, compromising, or insulting images of the guests on them.
Margot goes into the restroom for a smoke, and Chef follows her inside to ask what’s wrong with the food. “You shouldn’t be here tonight,” he says ominously.
For the fourth course, Chef introduces Jeremy, a failed chef who shoots himself in the head right in front of everyone. “It’s all part of the menu; it’s part of the show,” Chef says as they clean up the mess. Was it real, or was that fake? It looked real. Dinner gets a bit more tense at this point.
Mr. Leibrand, the old man, wants to leave, and some goons hold his hand down and cut off his finger. As the old man screams, Tyler enjoys his food. That was real; they all saw the finger on the floor. Though some still tell themselves and each other it’s all just a show.
Chef calls Margot to the kitchen and tells her, “We’re all going to die tonight,” and he wants to know if she wants to die with the clients or the staff. “It’s our side or theirs.” It soon becomes really obvious that they’re all prisoners there. Chef’s next speech attacks and explains a lot of what’s going on. He’s insane. He executes his main investor in front of everyone.
Chef calls Margot to his office to talk again. She says he’s right; she shouldn’t be here. He says she belongs on his side, with the “service workers.” She also… provides services. They talk about bad customers. He’s lost all desire and pleasure for cooking.
For the sixth course, Chef confesses to sexually harassing one of his subordinates, and she stabs him in the crotch. He tells the men that they have 45 seconds of a head start to run before they are hunted down. The women go inside to eat some more. Before long, all the men come marching back, thoroughly captured.
Chef openly confronts Tyler about bringing Margot instead of his original date, knowing full well that she would die. Chef says Tyler belongs in the kitchen because he knows so much about food – he should prove himself. He gives Tyler a chef’s jacket. Chef demands that Tyler cook with everyone watching. He does poorly with Chef mocking him the whole time. Then he whispers something in Tyler’s ear, and Tyler slinks off of the office to hang himself.
Chef assigns Margot to go get a barrel from the smokehouse because Elsa forgot. Is he helping her, or is this more humiliation? On the way back, Elsa attacks Margot, and they have a fight that Elsa loses badly. Margot takes a key from Elsa’s body and opens the mysterious silver door. There are photos there of when Chef was “Employee of the month” in his youth at a burger place. She also finds a radio and makes a call for help.
A boat soon arrives, and Chef orders everything cleaned up. Chef warns them not to say anything or the boat’s pilot will die too. Turns out, the fake Coast Guard guy is in on the whole thing.
Margot decides to fight back. She says she wants to send her food back. He has taken the joy out of eating, and she’s still hungry – the ultimate failure of a chef. “You cook with obsession, not love,” she complains. When he asks what she wants, she demands… a cheeseburger. Chef personally hand-makes her a cheeseburger as all the staff watches. She has a bite, then says she’s full and asks for the rest to go, and he brings her a box. She gets up, looks at the room full of formerly-smug assholes behind her– and leaves.
Chef thanks everyone for dining with them tonight. “You represent the ruin of my life.” It’s time for a dessert of s’mores. The staff puts a marshmallow bib on each guest and a chocolate hat on each of them. They douse the floor with graham cracker crumbs and alcohol. Chef makes an impressive speech, and some of the diners even thank him as he lights things on fire. The kitchen staff opens the gas jets.
Meanwhile, Margot sits in the boat and sees the explosion. She finishes her burger.
Commentary
I had assumed going into it that this was another cannibalism movie, but it totally wasn’t that at all. No humans were eaten in this film. None.
It’s hilarious. It pokes fun at all the pretentious food people, both in the kitchen and out. Some of the dishes look absolutely delicious, but probably not for the price these people pay. I like that Chef was crazy, but not so crazy that he was willing to kill an innocent, although it looked pretty “iffy” for a bit.
The set, music, and acting are all excellent. The food looks great. Best of all, it wasn’t what I was expecting.