The Kitchen
- Fueled by a bitchin’ soundtrack and three badass performances by the leads, this twist on classic mob tales doesn’t disappoint.
Full Disclosure: I didn’t have very high expectations for this one. I just knew it was a female driven mob movie based on a DC comic book I’ve never read.
Review
As usual, I’m going to be straight up with you. Until this film, I could not stand Tiffany Haddish. Her voice alone frayed my nerves more than nails on a chalkboard. Every time I hear her utter her catchphrase, “She ready!”, I want to stab by eardrums out with an ice pick. That being said, she really shines in The Kitchen. She sheds her stale, one note comedic gimmickry and turns in a more than passable dramatic performance here. I once had a similar opinion about Melissa McCarthy. She always seemed like a female third rate Chris Farley to me, but she won me over with her well-deserved Oscar nominated performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? It just goes to show that typecasting is never a good thing. When these two actresses are allowed to step out of their respective comfort zones and stretch their artistic muscles, they prove that they are so much more than tired catchphrases and physical humor. Elisabeth Moss, however, is one of the greatest actresses of her generation and always elevates any material she has to work with. On the surface, it seems like an odd trio of leads for a movie about the Irish Mob in 1970’s Hell’s Kitchen, New York. The thing is, it really works!
Moss, McCarhty, and Haddish all bring their own unique skill set to the table to create a trio of truly compelling characters.
The Kitchen is unique among mobster movies in that the female characters aren’t relegated to, well… the kitchen. It’s long been a legitimate criticism of the genre. From The Godfather to Goodfellas, women are expected to make dinner and babies while men make the money. They are to be seen, not heard. They are seldom, if ever, privy to the underground dealings of their respective husbands. The Kitchen takes this trope and flips it on its misogynistic head. When three prominent members of the Irish mob are arrested in a robbery gone wrong, their wives are left with nothing. The “allowance” they receive from their husbands’ cohorts is not nearly enough to live on. Rather than just accept their position, the three wives decide to take a piece of the action for themselves. Once they realize that they’re better at this line of work than their husbands ever were, a piece of the action isn’t enough. They come after the whole damn pie.
Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with the powers that be. This is Hell’s Kitchen in the 70’s, after all. It’s one of the most infamously violent and lawless neighborhoods in America at the time. The alpha male Irish gangsters that control the area don’t take kindly to being emasculated by these three renegade housewives encroaching on their territory. Therein lies the central conflict of The Kitchen.
Spoilers Ahead
These are three boss ass bitches, in the best sense of the term.
While the film is not perfect by any means, The Kitchen really is a breath of fresh air in a genre that’s been done to death. It won’t be winning any Oscars, but it’s thoroughly entertaining and well worth the 103 minutes it takes to watch it. The scripts has its pitfalls, and leans on genre cliches a bit too much. The directing is nothing to write home about. The strength here is in the performances of the cast, from top to bottom. Elisabeth Moss always delivers, so her brilliant turn as the meek Claire, wife to an abusive husband, was no surprise. Her arc from abuse victim to ruthless killing machine was a blast to watch. McCarthy proves once again that she has real acting chops in her role as Kathy, a strong but struggling mother of two.
The real surprise was Haddish as Ruby, a quintessential fish out of water in this world. She’s a black woman married to a white Irish gangster in an era where racial purity in the mob (and unfortunately, America at large) was still considered a virtue. When her husband is jailed, she loses her protection and is completely exposed to the overt racism of her mother-in-law, played by the incredible character actress Margo Martindale (Justified, The Americans). Haddish shows real range and depth here. She’s forced to wear a tough-as-nails exterior while still feeling like a vulnerable outsider. The always capable rapper-turned-actor Common delivers a fine performance as a Hell’s Kitchen cop.
The weak link in the cast has to be Bill Camp as the boss of the rival Italian Brooklyn Mafia. He’s just not intimidating enough to convince me that he could’ve run the Mafia in New York’s toughest borough in the 1970’s.
Yup. She’s more than an annoying catchphrase… Tiffany Haddish can actually act!
5 Quick Hits
This is a real case where the soundtrack makes the movie. Seriously, I urge anyone who’s reading this to type “The Kitchen” into your Spotify search and let it roll. Fleetwood Mac, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart, and Etta James are just a few of the acts whose songs make up this kickass soundtrack.
Claire’s death legitimately shocked me. I mean, it really made my jaw drop; especially considering how early on it came in the film. If one of the women was going to die, I would’ve expected it to be in a hail of gunfire in a climactic shootout towards the end. For her to go out in such an inglorious fashion was a real gut punch, but a riveting one that really ratcheted up the stakes for the remaining two protagonists.
I’m not sure if this was a one-off comic book or a series, but there is certainly room for a sequel, despite the death of one of the three main characters. Sadly, the box office returns and abysmal reviews this received from the prestige critics are unlikely to yield a second installment. I would’ve like to have seen how the uneasy alliance between Kathy and Ruby played out as they continued to gain power and influence, but it looks like it’s not meant to be.
Domhnall Gleeson damn near steals the show here as a disturbed Vietnam War vet, cold-blooded killer, and lover to Claire. He’s such an amazing actor. No matter how small the role, he always delivers. He’s one of my favorite diamond in the rough actors, and I hope he gets more opportunities down the road. Given the right roles, there is almost certainly a shelf full of acting awards with his name on them in the future.
There was one eye roll inducing moment in the movie that needs pointing out. The tracking shot of the rat digging through the garbage was such obvious foreshadowing that it took all of the juice out of the twist. It wasn’t clever when Martin Scorsecce did it in The Departed, and it was even less clever here. A rat signifies that someone is a rat!? Wow! How original. If a master like Scorsecce can’t pull it off, it’s best to leave it alone. It telegraphed Ruby’s heel turn way more than it should have, and was probably the weakest part of the film.
