I wasn’t going to watch this, because I assumed “oh, it’s gonna end with cannibalism”, because all films about haute cuisine end like that. But Mike at Redlettermedia said it doesn’t! And he said it’s hilarious, so I’m watching it anyway.

So far, it’s more amusing than actual “ha ha” funny…

Heh heh. “Not just a single vinyard, but a single row of vines.”

Heh heh heh.

I know it’s a joke and a “savage satire” and stuff, but I think that sounds great — I wanna eat at this restaurant.

And… I think they lulled me into a sense that I was watching a cookery show… and I was fine with that!

But this is an actual movie.

Well… It’s an original movie, fer sure. But there a number of cheesy bits (like with the burger) that were just *rolls eyes*.

And it’s not like it’s a low budget movie, which would excuse a lot of stuff. It’s a $35M movie, and it’s just very uneven. Parts are like “oooh” and then there’s a whole lot of “yawn” towards the end.

My impression is that people enjoy the political bits of this, which I can understand. But it’s just not all that.

The Menu. Mark Mylod. 2022. ⚃

There’s a song where the refrain goes “Wish I had hair like Alain Delon“. I’m guessing they didn’t refer to this movie?

Oh, this is directed by Joseph Losey, who did the intriguing Boom! film… And this is strangely gripping, too.

Hey! That’s Jeanne Moreau suddenly!

And this film is getting more and more mysterious. It’s great.

I wonder whether David Lynch was a fan of this movie. I guess if you’d describe it now, it would go “somewhere between Kafkaesque and Lynchian”.

This is some kind of masterpiece. It’s thrilling, moving and mysterious.

I do have one note, though: The very final thing, where we’re reminded of where this film began (so very ironic) really feels like an attempt at gilding the lily, and only manages to tarnish it instead.

(Although if you want to you could criticise it for foregrounding a non-Jewish character’s travails (mostly involving trying to prove that he’s not Jewish) during this period of real horror for Jews… But I think Losey manages that potential ickyness by making him deserve it, for some values of deserve.)

Mr Klein. Joseph Losey. 1976. ⚅

Hey! Futura!

Nice.

Right on!

The reason I’m watching this (I mean right now) is because I just watched The Honeymoon Killers, and people talk about this movies as a sort of sibling movie — both released at the same time, and with Divine’s performance seemingly echoing Shirley Stoler’s performance. And I’ve seen this before (I think?), but it’s a long while ago, and I got this new 2K disc from Criterion…

Yeah!!!!

Futura!

Heh heh.

But but… then we get a really long sequence about Jesus? What?

Most excellent, Jesus.

Hey! That’s Mink Stole!

And Mink Stole is inserting her rosary into Divine’s butt while telling Divine about a Jesusey story? Is Waters just trying to go for BLASPHEMY… to the MAX! or is he working through some religious damage?

It’s also possible that Waters is just trying to pad the movie, of course. It has to be more than 90 minutes to get proper distribution.

Yeah, wipe down them there rosaries.

So many shots out of focus… even entire scenes. Is it on purpose or just because Waters is stoned? (He filmed this, and I’m guessing didn’t have a focus puller on staff.)

I’d like to consider myself a very tolerant, broad-minded and versatile film fanatic. I’ve seen and reviewed more than 3.000 titles in the horror, cult and exploitation genre and I’m constantly looking for obscure films that push my boundaries in terms of bad taste, gruesomeness and extremity. With my recent discovery of John Waters’ “Multiple Maniacs”, I think I found my personal limit.

Understandable:

The film holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Waters’ highest-rated film on the site.

This is a wonderful movie, but is it good? I hesitate to even doubt in His Watersness, but there were bits that I think didn’t quite work. (Like the Jesus stuff (which I guess was a parody/reference to Pasolini’s Matthew?).) So let’s go with a very controversial:

Multiple Maniacs. John Waters. 1970. ⚄