The Kitchen

A politically charged film that fails on so many levels! - 3/10

by The Movie Inspector

A dull crime film, The Kitchen fails at providing life to its story due to working with a politically charged narrative that denies a smooth flow. Not even the good lead performances or effective setting could’ve saved this film from its imminent self-destruction.

Here we go again with yet another Hollywood film that wishes to take on an extreme feminist approach, boasting strong independent women who most definitely need no man to save the day. You see, if this film wasn’t so hell bent on making that one point clear and literally murdering what could’ve been a decent plot to make this feminist agenda of theirs works, then perhaps we would’ve gotten a worthwhile modern crime film. ‘The Kitchen’ follows the wives of three New York gangsters, who take over the streets in an attempt to make a name for themselves after their husbands get locked up in jail.

The issue with this movie is that it’s far too dull and serious to make room for any sense of intrigue or suspense within the story. The imposed feministic and racial relations themes are slammed in our faces in nearly every scene and for a moment it felt as though I was watching a public awareness video rather than a mob movie. Honestly speaking, this is really disappointing because the tone is set right from the very beginning but the political agenda makes it lose sight of decent storytelling. Heck it’s even well paced up until the middle of the runtime and even has a few interesting thoughts to offer in that first act. 

The highlight of this film though was undoubtedly the lead performances by Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and a Elizabeth Moss but a direction as weak as this never allows us to explore their characters for who they are but rather the bland and false image that Hollywood wishes to give them. McCarthy, having the most interesting character does well with what she can work with. Haddish starts off well but her character starts to tackle racial issues that always seem to be self contradictory and misplaced. Finally, Elizabeth Moss’ solution to everything is to go on an unnecessary killing spree. I won’t even get into the movie’s cheap and laughable plot twist because that was just too much... 

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