Masterful cinema, adapted from equally masterful theatre. Quirky and original perfection.
British playwright Arnold Wesker was renowned for his gritty, realistic, works. His first play, and most produced, The Kitchen, is set in the large commercial kitchen of a cafe, over one day. It follows the lives of waiters and cooks, as they struggle to hold onto their dreams in the face of relentless and often meaningless, work.
Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios has chosen to reimagine this piece in New York. Raúl Briones stars as Pedro, a skilled cook with a fiery temper. He has been having an affair with waitress Julia, played by the wonderful Rooney Mara. During the lunch prep period he learns that she is pregnant. He wants to marry her. She wants to go to a local clinic for a termination straight after lunch service, and be back in time for her dinner shift. Meanwhile accountant Mark (James Waterston) , and Manager Luis (Eduardo Olmos), are concerned about $800 missing from the till, and gradually taking employees off to interrogate them. Max, the grill chef (Spenser Granese) is about to explode in anger at Pedro and new cook Estela (Anna Díaz) looks on horrified as she tries to get through her first shift, and secure her employment.
Ruizpalacios has done an extraordinary job of putting Wesker’s vision onto the screen. He keeps to the original three-act structure with the crazy rush of lunch, followed by the lull of the mid-afternoon break, then cranking up again for the dinner service. As the tension of the workplace ebbs and flows, so does the drama of the people employed in it. The choice of black-and-white helps give the work a timeless quality, thereby allowing the setting to remain chronologically neutral. We note the absence of mobile phones, yet nothing else really puts the work into a specific time. Juan Pablo Ramírez’s cinematography and Yibran Asuad’s editing both add depth and detail to the visuals, while the director’s own adaptation of the play is subtle and intelligent.
Anchored around the powerful performances from Briones, Mara, Granese, and others, La Cocina is a masterwork of contemporary cinema, both moving drama, and satisfying black comedy.
La Cocina opens on May 15th
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