Considering what a talented and brilliant actor he is, I was immediately interested when I heard that Daniel Kaluuya had decided to try his hand at directing, working on this alongside Kibwe Tavares. As well as putting himself in that big chair, Kaluuya also co-wrote the script with Joe Murtagh. I was expecting great things.
I didn't get great things, but that doesn't mean that The Kitchen should be dismissed. It's a film with some interesting ideas tucked away inside it, even if the end result is a bit of a mess.
Kane Robinson (AKA Kano) plays Izi, a young man who lives in an area of London known as The Kitchen. It's not a great place to live, with resources being scarce and the inhabitants generally trying to get through their days without being beaten and harassed by police. Izi also works for a company that sells funeral plans "transforming the remains of loved ones into trees", although they may not be quite as pleasant and long-lasting as the marketing implies, and he has been saving up for a long time to earn the money to make his way up the social ladder and get a nice new home. But things change when Izi meets a young boy, Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman). Benji has just lost his mother, spots Izi at her funeral, and starts to consider the possibility that Izi is his father.
Working with limited resources, Kaluuya and co. do a good job of presenting an onscreen London that feels only a step or two away from how society is at the moment, depressingly enough. Those who can afford to live in comfort tend to have their own little bubble, far enough removed from the struggling members of society to enable them to stay carefree and happy, and those who are left to suffer end up pushed into smaller and smaller spaces until they start to turn on, and devour, themselves, helping to do the job of their oppressors without realising it.
Both Robinson and Bannerman are very good in the main roles, with the former in a role that I'm surprised Kaluuya didn't give to himself (although I'm sure he wanted to just focus on his main roles behind the camera). Hope Ikpoku Jnr also does well, playing a character named Staples who embodies a very different way of viewing that stairway to the rarefied air of those living in comfort. Ian Wright also impresses, playing a DJ named Lord Kitchener who delivers observations and messages of support and hope to the residents of The Kitchen. It's a bit of a cliché at this point, but Wright has the right voice and presence for it.
This is a film with some important things to say, about the importance of supporting and helping one another, and about the tactics of distraction and division that are used by those wanting to maintain the status quo of an unequal society, but it just doesn't quite do enough to be as effective as it should be. Everything about Izi's workplace feels like an afterthought, the other characters who move in and out of scenes add little, or nothing, to the whole thing, and it all ends with more of a whimper than a bang. I can understand why the third act plays out as it does, considering how we can look at the world around us and see that things are getting worse and worse for those who are already in a vulnerable position, but it doesn't work as an end point for the journey that Kaluuya and his creative partners have taken us on.
Not a disastrous directorial debut, but I hope for something much better when he gives it another go. But he should definitely give it another go, and I would even appreciate seeing another story set within the world that has been set up here.
5/10
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