The Menu Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

5. The INCREDIBLE First Act

It can't quite be overstated just how brilliant the first reel of this movie is: it's a masterclass in building suspense, introducing the roster of characters, and letting the audience know what they're in for albeit without showing every single card.

Director Mark Mylod does a superb job of slow-building unease, because though anyone who's seen the trailer knows that something bad's soon enough going to happen, we're never quite sure when the punctuating, game-changing moment is going to come, or what exactly it's going to be.

And though the final hour doesn't land with the same verve, it's nevertheless one of the tightest and most delicately, nimbly crafted first acts of any "genre film" in recent memory.

If it's said that a film needs to hook the viewer in the first 10 minutes or risk losing them entirely, then The Menu locks them in a damn vice grip within that time.