The Kitchen Review

The Kitchen

Review by Myla Tosatto

There are so many words I can use to describe The Kitchen: gruesome, gory, grimy, gritty, gratuitous and most importantly, girly. Well, girly isn’t fair. I was just going for some advanced alliteration. I tried to drop the word gun in that list as well but I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. Instead of girly, let’s go with girl power. There is SO much girl power this movie is bursting to its super sized seams with it.

Another word to describe The Kitchen? Stylish. Oh, so stylish. In the midst of all the brutality and blood, Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Kathy (Melissa McCarthy) emerge as fashion icons. Claire (Elisabeth Moss) mostly emerges as an unhinged psycho, but she can pull off a corduroy skirt. Costume Designer Sarah Edwards did a tremendous job styling the actresses. Haddish’s ensembles set me off in a rare fit of jealousy. The Hair and Makeup department were also up to the task. McCarthy’s face was made to be framed by the hairstyles of 1978. All three women walked the streets of Hell’s Kitchen being fearless and looking fierce.

In a time of male antiheroes, it’s nice to see the mantle being tossed over to Ruby, Kathy and Claire as they try to survive by taking over the criminal business of ‘protection’. McCarthy often flexes her dramatic chops but it’s refreshing to see Haddish give it a go. They both are capable of bringing the funny, but here they both bring menace as well.

Director Andrea Berloff wrote the script from the DC Vertigo comic book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. Just because it hails from a comic book, doesn’t mean it’s light. It’s not light. It is so not light that at certain times of the movie you have to keep your head down and your eyes closed. Even though I just told you to keep your head down, let me give you a heads up: Don’t bring your kids to see this movie. Unless you want to teach them how to dismember a corpse in a bathtub. Because they do that. Repeatedly.

The Kitchen is now playing in theaters!

About:

The gritty, female-driven mob drama “The Kitchen,” from New Line Cinema and BRON Creative, was written and directed by Andrea Berloff, who was nominated for an Oscar for the original screenplay for “Straight Outta Compton.” “The Kitchen” stars Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” “Bridesmaids”), Tiffany Haddish (“Girls Trip”), and Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) as three 1978 Hell’s Kitchen housewives whose mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands—proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition…literally. The film also stars Domhnall Gleeson (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”), James Badge Dale (“Only the Brave”), Brian d’Arcy James (“Spotlight”), with Margo Martindale (TV’s “The Americans”), Oscar winner Common (“Selma,” “Marshall”), and Bill Camp (“Vice”); as well as Jeremy Bobb (“Marshall”), E.J. Bonilla (TV’s “The Long Road Home”), Wayne Duvall (“Prisoners”), Annabella Sciorra (TV’s “Daredevil”), Myk Watford (HBO’s “True Detective”).

 

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