REVIEW: The Kitchen [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 107 minutes
Release Date: December 8th, 2023 (USA) / January 12th, 2024 (UK)
Studio: Netflix
Director(s): Daniel Kaluuya & Kibwe Tavares
Writer(s): Daniel Kaluuya & Joe Murtagh

Is it really like what they say it’s like?

Born from a story about Londoners robbing a Westfield mall on mopeds that Kibwe Tavares heard at a barbershop, he and Daniel Kaluuya (who was starring in the former’s short film at the time) agreed to meet and flesh out a narrative behind the act itself. The result, The Kitchen (co-directed by the two and co-written by Kaluuya and Joe Murtagh), therefore proves a great example of how the creative process can evolve an idea. Because there is a scene where a gang on motorbikes smash and grab through a posh shopping centre, but it’s very short and occurs during the third act.

That’s what happens when you dig down and search for motive. Why would these people do this? Where do they come from? What do they hope to achieve? Suddenly this cool set-piece is leading them down avenues that head towards a dystopian future so much like our own present that you can’t help seeing the event as an act of rebellious disobedience—an “eye for an eye” act upon the wealthy by the poor in response to the intentionally constructed disparity that separates them. A world is born to house these characters as well as a story able to flesh out the scaffolding upon which it’s built.

Enter a near-future London where government housing has all been bought by private financiers to level, rebuild, and charge a fortune. And now it all comes down to “The Kitchen”—the last establishment yet to be razed because its inhabitants have refused to leave. The water has been shutoff. Deliveries have been blocked. Raids to disappear any “squatters” left in the open roll through to slowly whittle away the population’s resolve and physical presence itself. But they continue to stand tall. Sounds eerily similar to the apartheid state of Palestine at the hands of Israel to me, but also the oppressive police states gradually forming throughout Europe and the US too.

Rather than focus on just that environment, however, the filmmakers push in on one man caught within: Izi (Kane ‘Kano’ Robinson). Sick of the squalor and ready to escape (a few more paychecks and he’ll have his deposit for posh, albeit over-priced and tiny, new digs), he’s biding his time and locking his door. But looking out for #1 gets a little more difficult when he discovers the death of a woman he once knew and, in turn, meets the son she leaves behind (Jedaiah Bannerman’s Benji). Is he his son too? Does it matter if he has the means to look after a boy with nowhere else to go? Would being his father make Izi less likely to help rather than more?

That’s the human element that takes the spotlight. Can Izi be the family unit Benji is so desperately in need of finding or will he selfishly let the kid down in pursuit of the hollow dream the state has forced him to covet above compassion for his fellow man? A war is brewing and the line that must be crossed to survive isn’t as clear-cut as some might want to believe in order to extricate themselves from needing to get their hands dirty within the fight. And while that all may seem ripe for some intense action a la Athena, know that The Kitchen never quite rises to those pulse-pounding heights. Its incendiary politics remain backdrop.

The result is slow moving and perhaps a bit repetitive insofar as how hard it will prove for Izi to break free of his “me first” mentality, but there’s a lot to like too from performances to soundtrack to production design mixing LED and neon with digital interfaces and drones. It’s an ambitious project for a feature debut (for Kaluuya and Tavares both), but one they keep grounded to its human element to maintain an authenticity that doesn’t rely solely upon seamless CGI. And with a resonant and timely setting, there’s a lot to grab onto thematically as well to enjoy a solid and emotional, if somewhat safe, bit of socially conscious sci-fi.