The Kitchen (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – In a dystopian future London where all social housing has been eliminated, Izi and Benji fight to navigate the world as residents of The Kitchen, a community that refuses to abandon their home.

My Take – Every year we see the release of a particular film which has critics go all raving about, and to catch the said audience’s attention we even see a recognizable name attached to the project, causing us to speculate about the quality of the final product. But in the end falling short of expectations.

Such is the case of this new dystopian sci-fi drama which released on Netflix last week, and though has debuted on the top 10 global chart, it has found itself in a rut, particularly due to its deceptively misleading trailer.

Directed by Daniel Kaluuya, known for his roles in acclaimed features like Get Out (2017), Black Panther (2018) and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), who shares credits with fellow first-time feature filmmaker Kibwe Tavares, and is working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses), the film starts of as a valiant attempt at a hard-hitting drama through a sci-fi lens.

But while we see the Oscar winner bring the same steady, unwavering style that has made him one of the most revered performers of this generation, the film is just simply lacking. The right idea was there, it’s just badly executed. The pacing needed to be a bit quicker and overall it just needed to be a bit more interesting.

It is just too vague and low on ingredients or a real story to offer its audience anything of worth. Throughout the film, the lack of a cohesive direction leaves viewers disconnected from the characters. The conclusion, especially, proves to be notably unsatisfying, offering little resolution to pivotal events that transpired earlier.

Nevertheless, one can be hope that as a director and writer Kaluuya will refine his storytelling skills to deliver a more engaging cinematic experience in the future.

Set in a dystopian future London where all social housing has been eliminated, and nearly all of the city’s residential properties have been bought out by private corporations, the story follows Izi (Kane Robinson), a loner funeral home worker, who lives in the city’s sole remaining social housing block, known locally and by its residents as The Kitchen.

Unlike many of his fellow occupants, who find emotional solace and joy in their tight-knit community, Izi is desperate to get out and move into a higher-end high-rise apartment. Something which he’s only 21 days away from being able to do so. However, his plans are turned upside down when he crosses paths with Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), a teenager grieving the death of his mother, who Izi happened to know years ago.

And when he follows Izi back to the Kitchen one night, Benji finds himself quickly torn between the community’s rebellious, anti-authority gangs, one of which is led by the observant Staples (Hope Ikpoku Jr) and the often cold, yet protective company of Izi, whom he suspects may be his long-estranged father.

Forcing Izi to choose between his dream of getting out of the Kitchen and making the sacrifices necessary to provide for the young boy who has suddenly walked into his life.

Indeed, the idea of the film is quite good, and engages you emotionally as we witness people’s challenges and the difficulties they face, despite being in the future. But the film isn’t as focused as it needs to be. It moves at a fairly slow pace, takes a while to get going, and never feels like it lives up to its potential. The premise that hasn’t been formulated into anything, which combined by the weak characters results in a complete lack of focus where no one really stands out, there is no one to root for and by the end you don’t care about any of them.

The film tries to portray the bond between Izi and Benji, but fails to make us care about them or their struggles. As it does not give us any insight into their personalities, backgrounds, or motivations. Together, co-directors Kaluuya and Tavares, and co-writer Joe Murtagh, believably turn the film’s central housing block into a lived-in, complex human community. From the neon-lit street markets set up around it to the dance parties that populate its halls and common areas on the weekends, the Kitchen itself is bursting with a sense of hard-won communal pride.

The film’s titular community is brought to further life throughout the film by the omnipresent voice of Lord Kitchener (Ian Wright), a radio DJ who has made it his mission to lift up the spirits of the Kitchen’s residents and fill their lives with music. But the problem is, while the film is able to build out its world effectively, and it understands hardships at a grounded, street level, it feels like something is missing.

The story never quite catches in the way I know it wants to, resulting in a film which tries, but doesn’t always succeed. Despite its dystopian backdrop, the film’s futuristic elements predominantly influence its visual aesthetics rather than substantively shaping the narrative. Add to that it ends with a vague and unsatisfying conclusion, that leaves many questions unanswered and many conflicts unresolved.

Performance wise, Kane Robinson is decent and shares good chemistry with Jedaiah Bannerman, whoever their interactions are often marred by dialogue that comes across as uninspired. In contrast, Hope Ikpoku Jr, in the role of Staples, stands out as the one actor who excels within the constraints of limited screen time.

Even Ian Wright makes the most of his role as the scene-stealing Lord Kitchener. While Cristale, Back Road Gee, Demmy Ladipo, and Teija Kabs are wasted. On the whole, ‘The Kitchen’ is a disappointing sci-fi drama that fails to narrate an uninteresting story.