The Menu goes after toxic fans in the end

Buzzy horror-comedy MenuIts accuracy in the field of culinary arts and political goodwill have been questioned. The madness and misery of Ralph Fiennes’ Chef Slowik are the film’s entry point to both these topics. But by the end, another character in the film exemplifies a third circle in the Venn diagram that has driven the movie’s chef to madness: toxic fandom.

Nicholas Hoult is the obsessive chef Tyler. MenuHe has made a successful adult career as a bona fide asshole. His teenage performance was electric. SkinsHe was a nearly-sociopathic, rich child who couldn’t stop cheating on her girlfriend. This film is a very similar to Peter III of Russia. The GreatHe has made it a part of his character archetype. He returns to cunty. Menu — his first lines are him admonishing his date for smoking lest she kill her palate — but the way in which he is an asshole is not just a generalized meanness, but a laser-focused and specific kind of entitlement.

Tyler is nothing but a jerk. Tyler takes photographs of his food even though he was told not to. He speaks over people, doesn’t listen when they talk, makes no effort to pay the same care and attention to the staff at this restaurant he valorizes as the care they show to him. He snaps at his girlfriend when she objects to the food in one horrible moment.

“This isn’t the kind of place where you send something back,” he says to her in a snarling whisper. “This is the kind of place where you thank them for letting you in the door.”

Photo: Eric Zachanowich/Searchlight Pictures

Tyler loves Chef Slowik, and his restaurant Hawthorne. This man and all things cooking have made Tyler a huge fan. He is also the type of person who can identify a Pacojet and has a $8,000 kitchen appliance. His passion for food and deep understanding of cooking make him superior to others. His favorite chef is just as great, or maybe even better, than him.

This would allow for comedy of errors in a regular movie. You can find it here. Menu, it’s a death sentence. Chef Slowik has gathered these diners here on this specific night because to him, they represent the “ruin of his art and his life.” He does not find Tyler’s slavish devotion and pedantic recitation of trivia amusing or flattering. Slowik sees them as toxic and rob him of all intrigue.

In the world of video games, one might euphemistically refer to the kind of fandom Tyler has as “passion.” When game development studios find themselves in the crosshairs of fans that are angry at them, they often call those fans “passionate” or may even thank them for their “passion.” When game development studio Beamdog experienced transphobic backlash, the CEO of the company called these fans “passionate.” When developers from Techland were harassed in reaction to a game delay, they went as far as to thank their “passionate” fans for being so “devoted.” When developers at Sony Santa Monica were harassed over release date changes for God of War Ragnarök, they too characterized this behavior as “passion” in a tweet.

The kind of behavior that leads a person to threaten or abuse people is not one that’s powered by passion; it’s powered by the need to possess something. While Tyler’s fandom doesn’t lead him to rise to anger at the chefs, he nonetheless acts like he owns them. Throughout the film he asks anyone who will listen if he can be allowed to speak with Chef Slowik alone, and assumes that every look or gesture is a secret message, just for him, to the point of complaining that chef must be mad at him like a child pleading for his father’s attention. In order to pay respect to Slowik, he orders everyone present to act in the manner he wishes. He also pays no attention to the rules that Slowik lays out for him, as if he is so special that he doesn’t have to follow them.

Image: Searchlight Pictures

Tyler considers going to Hawthorne a special experience that is only for him. About halfway through the movie, we also learn that he had full knowledge of the bloody plans for that night’s dinner service, and not only didn’t have an issue with it, but brought a date. After watching the movie a few times, I still can’t decide if he came because he thought the rules wouldn’t apply to him, or that the depth of his fandom would save him.

Ironically, Tyler is the only character that doesn’t complete the full dinner service because Slowik makes a special example of him. Of course, just because you like something a lot, and even know a lot about something, doesn’t mean that you can do it on a professional level.

“You are why the mystery has been drained from our art,” Slowik says to Tyler. “You see that now, don’t you?”

Tyler can’t help but mutter an explanation, his eyes aglow with tears. He is no longer the same Tyler who was so flamboyant and confident at the beginning. No matter how passionate he was about Hawthorne or Chef Slowik’s food, it did not matter what he thought. Passion is not a gift. In this world one is not owed anything. To mistake liking something a lot for purpose in life can only lead to the place Tyler is in his final moments of the film — walking ashamed down a dark hallway, having lost your sense of self.