The Kitchen movie review

MOVIE TITLE:      The Kitchen 

RATING:    R

LENGTH:     1 hour, 42 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE:  C-

IN A NUTSHELL:

The Kitchen is Andrea Berloff’s directorial debut.  It’s a bit of a rough start, but she shows promise.  Adapted from the DC comic, Vertigo, the movie takes place in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City.  It’s a female empowerment film as three Irish mobster wives decide to take financial matters into their own hands when their husbands get thrown in jail for three years.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

• Crude language, profanity, including F-bombs and the “N” word
• Guns
• Crime
• People get beat up with blood
• Lots of murders with blood
• An attempted rape
• Some racist & bigoted comments about Jews, Italians, blacks, and Irish
• You see a couple moving around in bed.

THEMES:

• Female empowerment

THINGS I LIKED:

•  The best performances I’ve ever seen by Tiffany Haddish and Margo Martindale.  They both played characters I’ve never seen them play before and they really rose to the occasion.  Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss have always given us strong performances.  It’s too bad the script wasn’t stronger.
• Another actor I adore is Domhnall Gleeson.  I’ve never seen him play a character like this either.  Well done.
• Good soundtrack, although the music didn’t quite match the tone of the movie.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

• The script is messy.
• Some of the dialogue is stiff, making the actors sound like they’re reading lines, rather than speaking naturally.
• The editing and transitions are clunky.
• Most of the time, we just watch the three leading ladies talk about how great they are.  They pretty much just walk around town collecting money.
• We don’t see a lot of resistance from the other mob guys.  The women quickly become successful so we can’t appreciate their rough climb to the top.  Their power seems to come almost too easily.

INTERESTING LINES:

* “You look pretty, Mama.” – Jennifer Brennan

“Pretty doesn’t matter.  It’s just a tool we use.” –  Kathy Brennan (Melissa McCarthy)

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

 WIDOWS

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@TrinaBoice