Three new films hang the super-rich out to dry

FROM “THE White Lotus” to “Succession” and even “The Crown”, many hit dramas on the small screen revolve around the lives of the top 1%. This trend for not just showcasing, but satirising the behaviour of the super-wealthy has found its way to the silver screen, too. Three new films delve into notions of power and affluence. And in an ironic twist, each features plutocrats getting their comeuppance on a remote island.

One is “The Menu”, a gleaming black comedy directed and written by Mark Mylod and Will Tracy of “Succession”, and co-writer Seth Reiss. Nicholas Hoult (“The Great”, “About a Boy”) and Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) play a young couple who take a boat to Hawthorn, an exclusive culinary mecca on a private island. A maximum of 12 customers per evening pay $1,250 each to dine there and to meet its legendary chef (Ralph Fiennes).

“Do not eat,” he commands, as unblinking and imperious as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence Of The Lambs” (1991). They are allowed to “savour” and “relish” his molecular gastronomy, but it is too precious for mere eating. The question is whether the Wall Street bros and has-been movie stars in attendance deserve the guru’s haute cuisine—or whether he will serve them their just desserts.

Before it turns into a gory thriller, “The Menu” is a piquant parody of pretentious restaurant culture (pictured, above). The beef is aged for 152 days in the island’s Nordic smokehouse; the cuisinier’s underlings all share a spartan dormitory; and the sommelier informs the couple that the pinot noir evokes “a faint sense of longing and regret”. The plot is not quite as well crafted as the dishes: the film is essentially an extended Monty Python sketch. But it does serve up generous helpings of fun.

Another plutocrats-on-an-island movie to take a dark turn is “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (pictured, top). In this puzzle-box whodunnit by Rian Johnson, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns as the world’s greatest detective—with the world’s most extravagant Southern drawl. As in the film’s predecessor, “Knives Out” (2019), he is sniffing out a killer within a clique of entitled snobs, but this time the setting is a private Greek retreat where a tech billionaire is hosting a party for social-media influencers and entrepreneurs. The storyline is not as brain-twistingly ingenious as that of “Knives Out”, but the colourful, raucous comedy makes “Glass Onion” just as entertaining.

Ruben Östlund, the director of “Triangle Of Sadness”, a savage satire which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, chose to poke fun at the habits of the elite aboard a luxury cruise liner (pictured, above). An evening of fine dining ends in a grotesque vomiting scene. By the film’s second half, some of its passengers have been washed ashore on a desert island, along with a few of the staff. Suddenly the haves are the have-nots, and only those with survival skills have any status.

These three films would make a wickedly enjoyable triple-bill, for they have much in common, despite belonging to distinct genres. It is clear that today’s directors and screenwriters are fascinated by what happens when people who wield extreme power and privilege get together. In “The Menu”, “Glass Onion” and “Triangle Of Sadness”, what happens is that they are stabbed, poisoned and blown to pieces. But that is not what makes the films so radical.

In the past Hollywood tended to revere the super-rich. Whether they are heroes, such as Tony Stark in “Iron Man” (2008), or villains such as Ernst Stavro Blofeld and James Bond’s other foes, they were usually once-in-a-generation geniuses. Their palatial homes were as awe-inspiring as the films’ production designers could make them.

Yet the monied characters in the current movies are neither brilliant nor sophisticated. Quite the opposite. Rather, they are crass, tasteless, insecure narcissists. A central plot point in “Glass Onion” is the abject stupidity of the suspects. This is a refreshing and overdue shift. Films which show the obscenely affluent being humiliated and murdered are all very well, but movies which show them being ridiculous are revolutionary. ■

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is showing in cinemas in Britain and America from November 23rd and will be streamed on Netflix on December 23rd. “The Menu” and “Triangle Of Sadness” are both showing in cinemas now