Besides the futuristic tech that pops in and out, there’s not a lot about The Kitchen that signals it as a sci-fi film. Neglected housing projects and violent raids have become too common to count as dystopian, so it often feels like The Kitchen could’ve gone without labeling itself as part of the genre (the real world is bad enough). But underneath those layers is a subtle but sublimely tender story about father and son finding each other amid the rubble of real life. First-time directors Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, The Black Panther) and Kibwe Tavares delicately balance the personal and the political, never undermining the former as many socially aware films do. If Kaluuya and Tavares had fleshed the world it built a little more and removed the parts, such as the sci-fi elements, that did not work out, then Izi and Benji’s story would have been memorably devastating, instead of just affecting.
"A very robust debut that lingers in your mind after."
— Rogan Graham
"If the relationship drama at its core doesn’t fully connect with the elegant brutalism of its visual language, there is, nevertheless, a lot to admire in both aspects."
— Sophie Monks Kaufman
Izi's close to escaping The Kitchen, one of London's last remaining housing estates. But when young Benji enters his life, he faces some hard decisions.
In a future not so far away, London has gotten rid of all of its housing projects except for one: a fiercely resistant and socially vibrant community known as The Kitchen. Just as Izi (Kane Robinson) prepares to leave it for a better life, he runs into Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman), a newly orphaned boy he takes under his wing.
The evocative faces of Robinson and Bannerman. I’d like to believe there is a version of The Kitchen that is solely focused on their dynamic and chemistry, their back and forths and their soulful eyes. That’s the movie I want to watch!
The Kitchen’s idea of a “dystopian” community just hits too close to home for those of us already living in overpopulated third-world cities.
