Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d’Arcy James, Jeremy Bobb, Margo Martindale, Bill Camp, Common, E.J. Bonilla, Myk Watford, Wayne Duvall, Pamela Dunlop, John Sharian, Brian Tarantina, Will Swenson, Annabella Sciorra, Bernie McInerney, Sharon Washington, Matt Helm, Angus O’Brien, Ciaran O’Reilly, Nicholas Zoto, Maren Heary, Stephen Singer, Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen, Jordan Gelber, Brandon Uranowitz, Bernie Rachell, Tina Benko, Susan Blommaert, George Riddle, Tom Patrick Stephens, Ann McDonough, Joseph Russo.
A film from the D.C. stable with no heroes, it seems almost unlikely that such a venture could be extracted from its more adult graphic novel range without taking a huge leap of faith, however, as the performance of Joaquin Phoenix proved with such artistry and conviction in Joker, the sense of criminality has its own code of conduct, and whilst we naturally steer clear of such characters in real life, there is a pulse that runs through the villain’s blood that resonates with our own sense of self-purpose, the need to kick back hard at those that have misused us, abused our worth, neglected to see us a person.
Like Joker, The Kitchen is placed perfectly in a time when New York was on its knees, the shining light of its heyday had dimmed considerably, when to cross the street on one side of a territory boundary could see you return home in a box, dead, or floating out to the ocean in pieces, the tide of The Hudson the final epitaph of your life.
However, unlike Todd Philips rather stark mirror that was held up as dystopian reflection of the soul, The Kitchen is a reminder than at one point New York City was as rancid as an apple that had decayed from the inside out, that there was no clown at the heart of mayhem, what there was little hope, despair and a lot of families of it all controlling all the strands of a web that a hand in everything, from corruption, to prostitution, to bootlegging, and money laundering. In that expose of desperate human life, Andrea Berloff”s screen adaption of Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle’s graphic novel is decidedly more in keeping with the fear of what the great American city was like.
Hell’s Kitchen is for many a reminder of that period of time, and a perfect back drop for the Irish family at the heart of the film to control and influence their neighbours with protection rackets and turning a blind eye to the ever growing manifestation of fear. It is fear that drives the three protagonists of the film, Kathy Brennan, Ruby O’ Carroll and Claire Walsh, played superbly by Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss, learn to make their mark on the locality after their husbands are incarcerated for their own criminal endeavours.
The Kitchen will draw comparisons with other films which deal with the idea of the family and the control of major cities in America, whether it is in the form of the Mafia or any other syndicate, however, and especially for Tiffany Haddish’s character, this is a film that deals with the idea of family in a different way, there are still violent deaths, there are still moments of absolute brutality, but this is also about how women can maintain the family dynamic with greater effect, that by working together, even if they don’t trust each other, they can change their own situation and that of the community around them.
It is a film of exploiting the damage created by the weaker men and using it for the purpose of repatriation, of balancing the gender divide out; and if takes a gun, if it takes murder to achieve that balance, then so be it.
The Kitchen is not a mirror held up to society, it is the real-life framing of a system out of control. Enlightening and terrifying in equal measure.
Ian D. Hall