Young couple Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) travel to a remote island to eat at Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant run by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), who has prepared a lavish molecular gastronomy menu where food is treated as conceptual art, although his approach to cuisine has some shocking surprises for the wealthy guests.

Director Mark Mylod’s The Menu is a classic puzzle-box thriller and while you enter the cinema expecting one thing, it delivers an altogether different kind of cinema experience. Part character study, part thriller and delivered with plenty of satire, The Menu finds a group of elite dinners invited to a very special celebration of molecular gastronomy at the lavish and world-class restaurant, Hawthorne, which is operated by the calculating and godlike restauranter Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). While the rest of the guests are enthralled by his culinary art, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young female guest runs afoul of Slowick and soon realises that this night is not what she thought it would be. And soon all hell breaks loose.

While The Menu is best savoured in one full serving, and spoilers should be avoided, I will say that this is a film that seeks to take deliberate narrative risks and they pay off big time in the long run. Sharply written, thrilling to watch and hysterically funny at the most absurd moments, Mylod’s The Menu is a darkly satirical look at consumer culture, elitism and the influencer crowd, and it’s a very smart watch. Moment by moment and course by course the direction of the narrative gets stranger and stranger, and some very scary thrills will make you sit up as Slowik’s menacing plan comes to the forefront of the narrative.

Cast as the central character in this very edgy watch is rising A-lister Anya Taylor-Joy who is becoming an absolute go-to talent and she gives her best performance yet in The Menu. Cast as the rebellious and bolshie Margot, who is lost to the concept and extravagance of her surroundings, and who soon suspects that all is not as it seems. Like everything in The Menu, Taylor-Joy presents audiences with an extremely layered and textured performance, and she’s right up against the uneasy tension of this narrative right from the start.

Facing off against Taylor-Joy’s interruption Margot is noted thespian and multiple Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes as revered celebrity chef Julian Slowik. And his is a dark and threatening presence. As Slowik, Fiennes presents a character who is forthright and stern in his presentation. A perfectionist in every sense of the word, his devotion to his culinary craft has turned him into a mad man and now this god-like figure is about to snap. Fiennes’s performance is laced with menace and intimidation, and his diabolical menu is served to the audience with both fright and understanding. He battles back and forth with Taylor-Joy’s Margot, and the two of them have excellent chemistry that takes this picture to another level.

Cast as the third wheel of the story is Nicholas Hoult as Tyler, an egotistical and snobbish foodie fanboy who is obsessed with Slowik’s work and whose unnerving neediness will make audiences cringe. This is all deliberate though, and Hoult gives a performance that marks Tyler as a deeply loathsome and unlikeable character, and as the narrative progresses we soon learn just how despicable and unpleasant he truly is. Hoult’s presence as Tyler is parasitic and leech-like, and his performance demands to be lauded for how detestable he makes this character. He plays off of Taylor-Joy with excellence, and their appearance together makes this film a very interesting watch.

The Menu is an edgy watch, and audiences will be swept up in the shocks, scares and satire very quickly. But it does play out at its own pace and there’s a lot going on to keep audiences entranced. Cinematography and production design plays a key role in the realisation of The Menu’s narrative, and this film is a gorgeous piece of cinema to witness. The work of cinematographer Peter Deming is beautiful to behold, and he captures the texture, colour and plating of The Menu’s gorgeous and meaningful dishes with a perfect eye. The production design of Ethan Tobman and the art direction of Lindsey Moran are also key parts of the film’s sense of mood, and the delicate and polished perfection of Hawthorne holds a dark and uneasy presence throughout the film, that impacts the intensity and punch of the story.

The Menu is a sharp and edgy piece of satirical comedy-horror, and there’s a lot going on in this picture that audiences will latch onto. It’s a very inventive and smart watch, and you’ll be on the edge of your seat right up to the final moment, and it makes for one hell of a bang.

Image: 20th Century Studios

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As a teenager, J. R. R. Tolkien befriends a group of fellow artists and writers at his school, with whom he finds inspiration and courage. Their bond of fellowship grows with the years, as they experience life together. Meanwhile, Tolkien meets Edith Bratt, with whom he falls in love. But when World War I breaks out, Tolkien’s relationships with his friends are tested, an act which threatens to tear their “fellowship” apart.

When we think of the famed Tolkien images of a refined older wizard of Oxford enters our minds, complete with a pipe in hand and a fire blazing in the corner of his own private office. But what of the young Tolkien, and the journey that he took to become the storyteller that the world has come to cherish. This is where director Dome Karukoski takes us in Tolkien, and it is a fantastical journey worthy of one of the author’s own stories.

Chronicling Tolkien’s youth from that of a young orphan to his first love, years of study at Oxford and the horrors that he witnessed during the First World War, Karukoski offers up a fully rounded portrait of a young man trying to find his place in the world. Karukoski’s Tolkien is an extremely intimate and introverted film, and he really makes an effort to take you inside Tolkien’s mind and works to get to the heart of how his imagination was formed, and the events which formed it. Karukoski’s passion for Tolkien’s work and life really shows through, and he does a fine job with his tribute to the great writer’s life.

Taking on the mythic part of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is young star Nicholas Hoult, and the English actor really commits to getting to the heart of who this man was. Hoult’s power as an actor really shows through with Tolkien as he replaces his usual jovial self with the interior, slightly closed off John Ronald and his performance truly speaks to the trials and tribulations that all young men must go through.

Responsibility is placed on him at a young age and you see him battling with this in relation to his desire for the love of his childhood sweetheart Edith Bratt, and the sacrifices that his responsibilities cause him to make. Hoult really brings about the Victorian era sensibilities of Tolkien’s life, and his earnestness and gentlemanly passions are kept in line very much with the era in which the story is set. Believable and sincere in the part, Hoult takes audiences on a fascinating journey as Tolkien and as an audience member, it’s amazing to watch him grow on screen as the character.

Standing next to Hoult is Lily Collins, and this beautiful English rose does a tremendous job in her performance to bring to life the role of Edith Bratt, Tolkien’s one true love and the source for many of his most inspired creations. An orphan like Tolkien, Edith desperately longs to escape the world in which she is trapped and through Tolkien’s growing infatuation with both herself and the narratives he is dreaming, she is able to find such an escape.

Collins is extremely natural in the part and she has this creative spark and light which absolutely holds the attention of the screen and that helps to illuminate the creativity that Edith inspired in Tolkien. As a pair, Hoult and Collins have wonderful chemistry together and you absolutely buy into their shared love as John Ronald and Edith, and the fantastical worlds and characters that this love gave birth to.

A classic trope of mythological fiction is the guise of the enlightened master or wizard, and here in Tolkien the young author finds two such men in the form of Colm Meaney’s Father Francis Morgan, a Catholic priest who serves as a guardian and father figure to the young John Ronald, along with noted thespian Sir Derek Jacobi as Professor Joseph Wright, an Oxford philologist who helps to inspire and cultivate Tolkien as a man of language and words.

Both actors bring incredible significance to the film, with Meaney’s Father Morgan emphasizing Tolkien’s dedication to his duty and responsibility, while Jacobi’s Professor Wright helps to guide the young man in his life journey and provides a context for his Oxford life. Jacobi’s appearance in the film is particularly enjoyable to watch and in a shared scene between himself and Hoult, we see the elder wizard emphasizing the importance of language and why words matter.

Alongside his lived experience, Tolkien also explores the formation of the author’s fantastical creative mind, and it is here where things truly get magical. Karukoski and his team bring about the magic of the author’s work into the film with subtle influences as you see the young Tolkien’s mind at play through waking visions and dreams that he has. These are particularly present as Tolkien suffers through the muck and blood of the Battle of the Somme and in a heightened state of Trench Fever the forces of good and evil begin to shape around him. It’s a brilliantly creative way to get inside the mind of a burgeoning creative soul and the images that appear before the audience are truly enchanting.

It’s easy to fall in love with Tolkien, and part of this comes down to its dramatic setting and the beautiful way in which it has been captured by cinematographer Lasse Frank. Dreamlike and ethereal, and poised of the otherworldly elegance of the Victorian era, Tolkien is a beautiful sight to behold. Franck captures the film is such a way that you, the audience member, feel like wanting to run after the TCBS and join them for their usual cup of tea and discussion of mythic stories and creative passions. With its mixed palettes of vibrant greens and rich browns, Karukoski and Frank also draw the audience’s connection back to Tolkien’s love for nature and the natural world and the inspiration that it gave him.

Thematically Tolkien draws its power from two sources: love and friendship. For love, this comes to the young Tolkien from Edith, and the power and significance she gives to him by believing in his talents and wanting him to tell his stories and explore the very route of language. The passion that they share for each other is also of vital importance to the film, and Tolkien explores the presence of love as the most important force that shapes us into who we are as people.

Alongside the tenant of love are themes of friendship and brotherhood and how these ideas shaped Tolkien into the man that we know him as. This journey of boyhood friendships and encouragement is explored deeply throughout the film, and is paired alongside the horrors that Tolkien and his friends witnessed on the Western Front. These thematic touch points are of special importance to the film and as an audience member, they certainly touch your heart.

Tolkien is a love letter to ideas of creativity, friendship and love, and the power that these things give to our lives. It is an exceptional portrait of the 20th Century’s greatest ever myth maker and audiences will come away from it filled with a desire to kindle their own passions just as the great John Ronald Reuel Tolkien did. This one is not to be missed.

Image: 20th Century Fox

The post ‘Tolkien’ – Review appeared first on SpicyPulp.

Now the great writers life will be put under the microscope in forthcoming bio picture Tolkien, which will examine just how the young Tolkien’s formative years shaped his desire to tell stories.

Watch the all new trailer below:

Here’s the full synopsis:

Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school.

Following on from the first teaser, this new look trailer for Tolkien really opens up the worldview of our story as we focus in on the life of the young Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) and his growing romantic attachment to Edith Bratt (Lily Collins) before all of this comes undone with the arrival of the First World War and Tolkien’s brutal experiences of the Battle of the Somme.

It’s only through the power of creativity that this war shaken Tolkien can make sense of the world around him and remembering the fellowship of his friends and embracing the great love of Edith, the young writer goes on to craft something of utter brilliance.

Prepare to experience the truly fantastical when Tolkien arrives in cinemas on June 6.

The post The life of a legendary author is revealed in ‘Tolkien’ appeared first on SpicyPulp.

Watch the brand new teaser below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Directed by Dome Karukoski, Tolkien stars Nicolas Hoult as J. R. R. Tolkien and Lily Collins as his beloved wife and love Edith Bratt, who would come to inspire many of the characters feature in the authors books.

Shot with breathtaking imagination, Tolkien appears to be focusing in on the author’s formative years at college with his fiends of the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, along with his service in WWI which culminated in the horrific Battle of the Somme. Played out amongst all of this is the young author’s buddying mind and how he slowly begins to construct the elaborate world of the Middle Earth from his life and its influences.

While the footage might only offer a quick look into the new series it certainly sparks the imagination and with the presence of Hoult and Collins in the lead roles you can be sure that Tolkien will be a fascinating film to watch unfold.

Tolkien will arrive in cinemas later this year.

Image: 20th Century Fox

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