By Jamil Weeks

First time director, Daniel Kaluuya, joined forces with British filmmaker, Kibwe Tavares, for a desolate portrait of the future where the gap between the poor and rich is as wide as the Pacific Ocean in the new Netflix movie, The Kitchen. The bleak film centers around two characters, Izi and Benji, played by Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman, respectively. Taking place in London, the plot is about the poverty-stricken area of the city, known as “The Kitchen”. The Kitchen has become a haven for the unfortunate people who do not have the resources to relocate. However, the property has been purchased by wealthy companies and the Kitchen, thus, is deemed as private property. The people who still reside there do so illegally and at their own risks. Random police raids threaten to either separate family members from each other or for the residents to lose their lives with the brutal attacks from the police forces dispatched to the area. Through all the chaos and hopelessness, the two main characters manage to forge a bond. As Izi and Benji’s friendship grows stronger, the story reveals there is more to the nature of their relationship than meets the eye.

The plot of the film is not a new story. The story of the loner who reluctantly takes in a youth only to gradually grow a soft spot for that child and be their protector. However, in The Kitchen, Robinson and Bannerman really sell the father/son dynamic in every scene together. With Izi, Robinson does a masterful job at depicting the internal conflict within himself. On one hand he wants nothing to do with being responsible for Benji. On the other hand, he cannot deny he has taken a liking to Benji and slowly starts to care for his well-being. The inner squabble he is feeling has him going back and forth between becoming the father figure Benji needs in his life to abandoning Benji in pursuit of his own selfish goals. As Benji battles his own internal demons, he ultimately comes to a crossroads where he must decide to either stay in the Kitchen to make sure Benji does not go down the wrong path or escape the neighborhood to better his own life.

When we are introduced to Benji, we learn he has suffered a tragedy with the passing of his mother. With this passing, Benji is seemingly left without an authority figure in his life to care for him. Almost simultaneously, he meets two older men on different trajectories in life. One is Izi, who works in a funeral home and is saving up enough money to move to a nicer place. The second is a character named Staples, played by Hope Ikpoku Jnr, who seduces a young Benji with the allure of street life. Like Izi, Benji is also wrestling in a mental tug-of-war of what direction to take in his life. While Benji is hot and cold in how he interacts with Benji, Staples comes across as solid taking Benji in, giving him food, offering companionship, and schooling him on how to survive. While feeding Benji propaganda on how to fight back against the system that is oppressing everyone in the Kitchen, Staples is the personification of a wolf in sheep’s clothing as he leads Benji down a self-destructive path. Bannerman’s masterful acting makes you feel tremendous empathy for Benji who desperately seeks a family in the wake of his mother’s demise.

The Kitchen is an emotional rollercoaster as you experience the highs and lows of the friendship between Benji and Izi, as well as the residents of the Kitchen district. Community is a common theme in the movie. You see how the Kitchen residents come together to look out for each other forming their own counterculture. Despite being poor, they throw parties, dance in the street, make their own music, and develop their own rules that help them stay alive and fight back against the police force that is trying to force them out of the neighborhood one way or the other. Like Lord Kitchener, played by Ian Wright in the movie, states over the airwaves that keep the residents connected, the only way they can be defeated as a unit is individually. By sticking together, they are unstoppable. As the turmoil within their surroundings takes place, Lord Kitchener’s point is driven home as Izi and Benji form their own father/son-like bond and become like family. Despite them going their separate ways in certain moments in the story, they both are at their best when they are together taking care of each other. The two characters need each other, despite their denials at certain points in the film. Benji desperately wants Izi to assume that father position in his life despite Benji dabbling in the streets. Izi shuns assuming that role in Benji’s life despite his own life being incomplete in the absence of Benji. When the characters in the film go their own individual way, bad things happen in their community. The Kitchen serves as a critique of modern-day society, suggesting there is more power in unity.

The Kitchen was a fascinating watch. An intriguing look at what future society could look like coupled with the heartwarming and heartbreaking relationship between the two main characters makes The Kitchen a moving film. The open-ended conclusion makes you ponder the ultimate fate of Izi and Benji. The acting across the boards is superb and the story plunges you deep into the world of the Kitchen neighborhood. A movie that will make your eyes water from the powerful performances of the actors and the sentimental story. Both Kaluuya and Tavares doing a marvelous job of character development between the central characters as well as the supporting community members of the story. Clocking in at an hour and 47 minutes of runtime, the film is the perfect length with no filler in any of the scenes. The emotional scenes are well earned as the story properly cultivates the relationships between the characters in the film with an appropriate pacing in the storytelling. The film does not come across as “preachy” as the story takes precedent over the subtle messages on class warfare and poverty. While being a serious drama, the film does offer moments of levity with lighthearted comedic moments sprinkled throughout. As you get to know the residents, the police raids keep you in suspense of the outcomes of the characters. The Kitchen offers a little of everything on the menu, with drama as the main entrée and sci-fi, fantasy, and thriller as side dishes. The CGI compliments the story as the film seems like it was filmed in real locations instead of on a set with green screen. Check it out for yourself to find out why The Kitchen is a current top 10 most watched film on Netflix right now.