La Cocina (The Kitchen) 2024. English/ Spanish. Cast: Raul Briones, Rooney Mara, Anna Diaz, Oded Fahir, James Waterston, Eduardo Olmos. Director: Alonso Ruiz Palacios. 239 minutes. MA 15+
As the saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. This film, shot in black and white with occasional blurring and kinetic camerawork, focuses on the kitchen of a fast-food restaurant in Times Square, New York. The Grill is not a place for people who cannot work fast and hard and who are unaccustomed to the frenzy of service and the heated language that goes with it. Most of the staff are illegal immigrants, the undocumented, desperate to get papers to afford them an outside chance of chasing the American dream. It is loosely based on the 1957 play, The Kitchen, by Arnold Wesker.
The film is long and quite bleak. The lives of the workers are so hard and unrewarding and there seems to be little hope of change for the better for them. They are poorly paid, manipulated and know it, but this is better than life back in Mexico. Or is it?
The romance between Pedro (Briones) and Julia (Mara) is fevered and unlikely. He is a romantic and older, she has been around the block a few times and has a child. She is pregnant and a decision has to be made. The heat is turned up in when $800 goes missing from the takings and all the kitchen staff are under suspicion. The manager distrusts them all and Pedro is on two strikes before being fired because his temper is volcanic. A new staff member, Estala (Diaz) watches as the drama unfolds, much as we do.
This film takes an inside look the dynamics of the professional kitchen. This is all about speed of service and teamwork. There is a simmering (sorry!) antagonism between Pedro and another chef, Mark (Waterston) and the dishwashers and chefs throw insults at each other and swear profusely. The owner (Rashid) is distant and the manager Luis (Olmos) is greasy and toadying. The waitresses balance trays and orders trying to keep customers fed quickly in the quick turnover of this tourist eatery. It is manic behind the swing doors – a culinary chaos.
An extended scene in the alley way outside the restaurant on a break provides an insight into what some of the staff dream of and some who have now given away their dreams and are trapped, physically and psychologically.
The final scene when Pedro has a breakdown is terribly sad and totally compelling. I have worked in big kitchens like this and they are run on heat, adrenaline and impatience. This film recreated the frenzy of service well. It also highlighted the invisibility of the many who work in hospitality, unseen, poorly paid, drudging rather than living. Briones was compelling in his role as Pedro, a leader because he is a gifted chef, but also someone who is living on the edge because of his illegal status.
There were some lovely passages of music, symphonic and aggrandising, but perhaps needed more of a discordant jazz sound to complement the maelstrom of emotion in some scenes. My Kitchen Rules it is not, but a salutary take on the reality of those working behind the scenes so others can dine out, impervious to the hard-knock lives those behind the kitchen doors lead.