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Adam McKay and Will Ferrel love eating the rich, don't they? I don't mind because they're not bad at it. In this one, they at least let them eat first. Various elites not far removed from the ones in Glass Onion get on a boat and travel to an island home to the most exclusive restaurant imaginable. Our guides are Tyler (Hoult) - who worships the ground that head chef Slovik (Fiennes) walks on - and Margo (Taylor-Joy), his more skeptical date. Their fellow diners range from a critic who would scare Anton Ego to the kind of finance bros the producers love to skewer. Does everything go according to plan and do all the guests have a nice time? Umm, yeah, sure.
While it may be redundant to praise Ralph Fiennes at this point, it's still worth mentioning that half the fun is simply watching him work. Does Slovik have the tics and mannerisms of a stereotypical Michelin-starred chef? Yes, but Fiennes makes him out to be more interesting and human than that and in surprising ways. Unpredictability is the name of the game here - a dinner down the rabbit hole, in other words - with the courses and the cast's varied and equally praiseworthy reactions to the craziness making the surprises even more fun and shocking (or in the case of Tyler, lack thereof since he hilariously buys whatever Slovik sells). Also, in true Ferrell/McKay fashion, each guest personifies a modern demon, and as broad as they may be, each one proves that subtlety is not always a virtue. All the while, there's Taylor-Joy's straight woman, who made me feel like I was a guest myself since her responses approximated my own. For the ways the movie lovingly skewers fine dining and the kinds of people who explain why we cannot have nice things, it's a very fine horror comedy for our time. I am just surprised - and maybe a little scared - that I was hungry after it was over.
Adam McKay and Will Ferrel love eating the rich, don't they? I don't mind because they're not bad at it. In this one, they at least let them eat first. Various elites not far removed from the ones in Glass Onion get on a boat and travel to an island home to the most exclusive restaurant imaginable. Our guides are Tyler (Hoult) - who worships the ground that head chef Slovik (Fiennes) walks on - and Margo (Taylor-Joy), his more skeptical date. Their fellow diners range from a critic who would scare Anton Ego to the kind of finance bros the producers love to skewer. Does everything go according to plan and do all the guests have a nice time? Umm, yeah, sure.
While it may be redundant to praise Ralph Fiennes at this point, it's still worth mentioning that half the fun is simply watching him work. Does Slovik have the tics and mannerisms of a stereotypical Michelin-starred chef? Yes, but Fiennes makes him out to be more interesting and human than that and in surprising ways. Unpredictability is the name of the game here - a dinner down the rabbit hole, in other words - with the courses and the cast's varied and equally praiseworthy reactions to the craziness making the surprises even more fun and shocking (or in the case of Tyler, lack thereof since he hilariously buys whatever Slovik sells). Also, in true Ferrell/McKay fashion, each guest personifies a modern demon, and as broad as they may be, each one proves that subtlety is not always a virtue. All the while, there's Taylor-Joy's straight woman, who made me feel like I was a guest myself since her responses approximated my own. For the ways the movie lovingly skewers fine dining and the kinds of people who explain why we cannot have nice things, it's a very fine horror comedy for our time. I am just surprised - and maybe a little scared - that I was hungry after it was over.