The Menu | 2022 | R | – 3.6.10

Why is “The Menu” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a description of sexual harassment of two separate women by two separate men, a self-inflicted fatal gunshot wound, a man’s finger being cut off, a man hanging himself, a man being drowned, a fire and an explosion that kills many people, several arguments and confrontations, and over 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A young couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a remote island for an exclusive dining experience that includes delectable and artistically prepared foods by a renowned chef (Ralph Fiennes), who wraps it all up with a final shocking course. Also with Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Paul Adelstein, John Leguizamo, Aimee Carrero, Reed Birney and Judith Light. Directed by Mark Mylod. [Running Time: 1:46]

The Menu SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A woman describes a man self-stimulating while he forced her to watch and tell him nice things about himself. A woman talks about a man (her boss) trying to have sex with her repeatedly (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A wife confronts a man about a photo of him with another woman and he says that it was fabricated. A man describes pretending to like the flavor of food as faking an orgasm.
► A man presses his cheeks to another man’s face.
► A woman wears a low-cut dress with spaghetti straps that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders throughout the movie; the dress is made of a satin-like material that clings to her chest, hips and buttocks.

The Menu VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man talks about a cook in his kitchen and says, “He’ll never be great,” as they stand in front of diners and the cook puts a gun in his own mouth and shoots himself; blood splatters on a plastic tarp hanging behind him, he falls on another tarp on the floor and blood pools under his head before he is wrapped in the tarp and carried away. Two women fight, one slashes the other with a knife (we see bloody wounds on her arms), and the other throw things and hits her with pieces of wood and cooking equipment; one woman is pinned on the floor and the other stabs her in the throat (she gurgles blood from her throat and she dies).
► A man is embarrassed by failing to prepare a dish for a chef and he trudges out of the kitchen; we later see him hanging in a back room (his body swings and we see him from the upper chest to the feet). A man wearing large feathery angel wings is shown bound and dangling from cables over the sea; he is lowered into the water and we hear him screaming until he sinks under the surface and we understand that he has drowned. A man tries to leave a restaurant and he is stopped by three people holding knives: they hold his hand to a table and one of his fingers is cut off (we see a ring drop to the floor and we see blood) as the man screams and moans. A woman tells diners in a restaurant that a man (her boss) tried to have sex with her repeatedly and she stabs him in the leg with a pair of kitchen scissors and wipes blood from her hand on his jacket (he moans, pulls them out and limps for the rest of the movie).
► Flames spread through a room and around people seated at tables; we see chocolate melting and dripping down a woman’s face, marshmallow shawls around people’s shoulders begin to toast and we see the building explode in flames from a distance.
► A woman punches a man hard in the face and she is pulled away from him by others. A man with a gun points the gun at many people in a room and tells one person to get on his knees with his hands in the air (no one is shot). Several men are chased through woods by other men: one is tackled, one is surrounded, another is dragged out of a boat and they are all taken back to a restaurant; another is found hiding in a chicken coop. A man claps his hands loudly before introducing each course and people are startled from the sound. A man yells for people to eat food placed in front of them and they oblige nervously. A man tries to break a window with a chair (it does not break). A woman walks through dark woods alone and is startled by noises. A woman complains of a “broken emulsion” in a dish served to her and the chef delivers two more portions to her, each larger than the previous one.
► A man tells a woman that another man hired her knowing that she was going to die. A man describes a memory from his childhood when his father came home very drunk and wrapped a telephone cord around his mother’s neck and the boy stabbed his father in the leg with kitchen scissors. A woman describes what would happen if a bacterium from dry-aged beef would enter a person’s system and says that it would spread to the spinal tissue and eventually it would be deadly. A man tells a woman that she doesn’t get it. A man asks a woman for bread and she says no, the man argues briefly and the woman leaves. A woman says that a photograph was taken after a man had a melanoma removed. A man asks a woman, “Do you think he hates me?” A man tells a woman that she is wounding him by not eating the food he has prepared for her. A man tells a woman, “You shouldn’t be here tonight.” A man talks about the damage a woman has done as a restaurant critic. A man accuses another man of being an enabler and coddling a woman. A woman tells a man, “I’ve been stealing from you,” and he says he knows. A woman mentions in passing that a man has a DUI. A man and a woman argue, he calls her names and she leaves the room.
► We see bank records of a company and understand that three men have been embezzling. A man uses a pistol lighter to light a candle on a table. A man tries to hatch a plan to “storm the kitchen,” to get away and to safety. A woman smokes in a bathroom and a man enters and locks the door behind him; she protests his being there and they talk briefly before she leaves. A man snaps his fingers at a woman and tells her to be quiet. A man quizzes a woman about who she is. A man tips a glass off a table and it shatters on the floor. Two people slurp a prepared oyster from its shell.

The Menu LANGUAGE 10

 – About 59 F-words, 5 sexual reference, 11 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (foodie, pond scum, humiliating, cool girls, insane, outrageous, fiendish, child, martyrs, heretics, offensive assault, monstrosity, bored me, nuisance, failure, man’s folly, donkey, enabler, name-dropping whore, dumb, bad, burned out, pathetic, dude, idiots, wicked, girl next door), exclamations (wow, shut-up), 3 religious profanities (GD), 20 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, oh my God, where God works, thank God, Holy [F-word and scatological term deleted], Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ). | profanity glossary |

The Menu SUBSTANCE USE

 – People drink champagne on a boat, and people drink many bottles of wine during a multi-course meal, a woman drinks a lot of wine and we are told that she is drunk, a woman mentions in passing that a man has a DUI, and a man talks about his father coming home drunk when he was a child (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman smokes while waiting for a boat and her date reprimands her (she puts the cigarette out), and a woman smokes in a bathroom.

The Menu DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Art, creativity, appreciation, exclusive restaurants, nature, idolizing people, ego, love of creating something good, punishment, failure, pressure for perfection, pleasing people, memories, longing and regret, mindfulness, betrayal, trust, freedom, losing your purpose, experiences, service industry, embezzling, innovation, irrelevance, cancer.

The Menu MESSAGE

 – Creative people need to be appreciated for what they do.