CHRIS' QUARANTINE RECOMMENDATION OF THE DAY (5/27/20): THE KITCHEN

CHRIS' QUARANTINE RECOMMENDATION OF THE DAY (5/27/20): 

THE KITCHEN

by Chris La Vigna (@Chris_LaVigna)

If you can't stand the heat, get out of their kitchen...

Hell's Kitchen, NYC. 1978. Three women, desperate to make ends meet after their mobster husbands get pinched and shipped off to Rikers Island, take over their hubbies' rackets, and become powerful gangsters in their own right. They take on all comers and grow more powerful and cunning as they protect and expand their turf. When their husbands are eventually released, the question becomes: do things go back to normal, or are these badass women in charge for good? The answer involves a lot of power grabbing, violence, and reckoning with the darkest parts of each girl's pasts. If that sounds like one helluva movie to you, then you need to watch THE KITCHEN.

The film wastes no time letting you know what it's all about, either: As we open on an establishing wide shot of the New York City skyline, a cover of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" unfurls across the soundtrack, growing quieter but still playing as we're introduced to our three leading ladies - Kathy (Melissa McCarthy),  Ruby (Tiffany Haddish), and Claire (Elizabeth Moss). 

The three of them are united by their common bond of being hapless housewives to low level goons in the Irish Mob. While Kathy seems to enjoy a relatively stable home life, Ruby is forced to deal with unreal amounts of racism and disrespect as a black woman married to an Irishman, and Claire is seething with unreleased rage as she suffers physical abuse from her brutish husband Rob.

When the ladies finally decide to take the streets for themselves, it affects each of them differently: Ruby finds herself developing a taste for the power that comes with making collections and leaning on deadbeats and weaker criminals. Kathy also becomes quite adept at it, particularly when it comes to negotiating with bosses from the Italian and Jewish mobs, and Claire finds that she has a knack for being a hitman (hit-woman? hit-person? Wait what am I doing, the word assassin is gender neutral and already exists) an assassin, especially when experienced killer Gabriel (Domhnall Gleeson) takes her under his wing. Now, she finally finds the strength to stop letting the world knock her around, and it feels good, and she'll put a bullet in anyone who'll try to take it away from her.

Go ahead, fuck with their money. See what happens...

This is not a subtle film by any means, but y'know what? Screw subtlety! Subtlety is for the weak. The way I see it, if your film/book/song/podcast or whatever has a message for the audience, then you have to grab the audience by the throat and say what you need to say while you stare unblinkingly into their eyes. Say it loud, say it proud, and repeat it as much as you need to, until you're damn sure that you've penetrated their souls.

The film, based on a Vertigo comic of the same name, is written and directed by Andrea Berloff (already an accomplished screenwriter, the film is Berloff's directorial debut). On a side note, I urge to you to read the graphic novel-- writer Ollie Masters and artist Ming Doyle manage to craft a story that is equal parts beautiful and ugly, poetic yet brutal, and Berloff manages to not only bring all of that into the film, but elevate and even examine the themes in deeper ways. 

The most obvious example is Tiffany Haddish's performance as Ruby. In the comic, Ruby (named Raven in the comic) is Irish just like the other two wives. Making her an African American woman who has always had to struggle with being an outsider in the family, even in the "good" times, compounds her frustration and alienation. You really feel her anger and you understand why she takes so well to being a gangster; whether or not she truly likes it, she has no choice but to commit to being her own boss and cutting down anyone in her way. Who would ever want to go back to being degraded the way she has?

Everything from the film's color palette, sets, and wardrobe, to the needle-drop 70s pop soundtrack works together to fully immerse you the dirty-yet-vibrant world of 1970s NYC. Berloff knows exactly when to keep the camera tight to catch the nuances in the actors faces, and when to keep things wide and let the camera glide around to capture all the energy and action. THE KITCHEN is a no-bullshit crime movie that knows what it wants, and reaches out to grab it. If you're smart, you'll stay out of its way and enjoy the show.

THE KITCHEN is currently streaming on HBO GO.