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The Kitchen is set in a London that could be either a parallel vision of the city we know, or a foretaste of a chilly tomorrow just around the corner. It’s co-directed by Kibwe Tavares and transatlantic star Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out); the latter co-wrote it with Joe Murtagh and Rob Hayes.
The hub of the action is an embattled housing estate that, seen from afar, resembles a Lego recreation of a maximum-security prison, and where morale-boosting radio broadcasts come from DJ Lord Kitchener, played by former footballer and TV star Ian Wright. Known as “The Kitchen”, this is the home of funeral worker Izi (Kane Robinson), a saturnine loner who has his heart set on fancier upmarket accommodation.
When an ex-girlfriend dies, Izi reluctantly takes her teenage son Benji under his wing. But the boy (characterful newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman) is inclined to hang out with the rather livelier rebel crew headed by activist-bandit Staples (Hope Ikpoku Jr).
The Kitchen brings a lo-fi touch of Blade Runner street futurism to a black British dramatic landscape with hardbitten echoes of TV’s Top Boy (of which both Ikpoku and Robinson, aka grime star Kano, are veterans).
The visuals are sharp, with neon splashes of augmented reality in the street scenes and inventive use of familiar locations, including the Barbican. There are also bustling action sequences — a roller disco, a bike rally, face-offs with invading police. But the rules for The Kitchen’s cold corporate future aren’t entirely clear — least of all, a curious method for recycling the low-income dead as greenhouse plants.
Tavares trained as an architect, and the film offers a convincing VFX-enhanced vision of dystopian urbanism. But it’s narratively thin, and the mood is often inert, with too many scenes devoted to a terse, cautious bonding between Bannerman and the solemn Robinson. The Kitchen convinces as downbeat futurism, but as drama, it only occasionally rises above a simmer.
★★★☆☆
In UK cinemas from January 12 and on Netflix from January 19
