Shouldering the privilege of closing the 2023 edition of London Film Festival with their directorial debut no less, Daniel Kaluuya & Kibwe Tavares cook up The Kitchen, a near-future dystopian drama dealing with social class divisions. With Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman leading from the charge, The Kitchen explores a time when all forms of social housing are eradicated, leaving only The Kitchen: a community that refuses to move away from the place they call home. Desperately seeking a way out, Izi meets Benji, a young kid processing the loss of his mother. As a relationship begins to forge, they must overcome the system stacked against them if they want to survive it.
The Kitchen is a fine but unremarkable debut piece from a pair of directors who demonstrate a lot of promise regardless of its limitations. A film of clear ambition, the final product may seem somewhat underbaked, the talent at the helm setting up a level of expectation The Kitchen doesn't come close to meeting, but nevertheless demonstrates a filmmaking duo who understand how to deliver a passionate rallying cry with more on its mind than your average first outing. Particularly in the way it explores a community that has risen from hardship, it presents and contrasts the two worlds through fascinating lenses, enhanced further by Wyatt Garfield's moody cinematography.
But The Kitchen’s most significant area of weakness is its screenplay. A predictable story, littered with wholly predictable narrative beats, there’s a formulaic approach to The Kitchen that undermines the more interesting theme work that bubbles away under the surface. With little in the way of depth throughout Rob Hayes, Joe Murtagh and Kaluuya’s script, The Kitchen never truly delves into how the social hierarchies came to be, how its opposition came to establish themselves, or the consequences those who fail to vacate the area face, these more interesting details painted with the broadest brush strokes that fail to build the dystopia in a particularly compelling way. Given that it's such a key focus of its premise, it is disappointing that the film never quite grasps its more elevated prospects with much success.
Instead, more of the screenplay's focus is on character work, despite struggling to give us any characters who feel particularly memorable or especially compelling. However, an undoubtedly well-acted piece emerges from the mixed bag of a screenplay, its lead actors shining. Kane Robinson imbues a level of dramatic heft into proceedings, a brooding performance that carries the film from open to close; Bannerman, making his screen debut as Benji, is similarly impressive, a turn of remarkable maturity that reflects the growing up he has needed to do following the loss of his mother. Together, the pair are a safe pair of hands, cultivating a believable father-and-son relationship that holds our attention despite the script's shortcomings.
The Kitchen is a decent directorial effort from Kaluuya & Tavares, showcasing a particularly impressive skill in directing, but the feature's ambition occasionally threatens to swallow it whole, its underbaked dystopian world and unexplored thematic ground sadly teasing the more impressive feature it could be. Even still, with a strong ensemble, capably led by its terrific leads Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman, there's a freshness to The Kitchen's vision, despite the predictability of its narrative beats, that makes it a worthwhile viewing experience - if only to be able to look back on in years to come as Kaluuya & Tavares continue in their ascent to greatness.