Deep in the superhero-dominated era of science fiction, each passing year of the 21st century marks another hit-or-miss year for sci-fi movies. Though some excellent features have recently come out under the genre’s wide banner, lackluster Marvel-sized blockbusters paired with hard counterprogramming make for a whirlwind of missed swings alongside the occasional masterwork of varied approaches. Neither a massive success nor a miss, Netflix’s latest sci-fi addition, The Kitchen, sits in the middle of these films, standing just above slightly lesser minor disappointments like The Creator, Jules, and Leave the World Behind.
‘The Kitchen’ Plot Summary
When a young stranger, Benji, attaches to Izi, the man’s plan to rise out of London’s last social housing units runs into a few roadblocks. Leaving “The Kitchen” might mean eliminating Benji from his life, and Izi has to determine the right decision in the face of an all-time-high wage gap struggle.
Science Fiction in 2023 Runs the Gamut from Amazing to Terrible
Even with the creative output of the MCU diminishing over time, Marvel is still the best and worst thing about science fiction in the last year. The spectrum of quality covers the latest Ant-Man (not to mention Madame Web, which we will not even bother with yet) to the stellar animated feature Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, one of the best films of 2023. The quirky, satirical indie releases like Biosphere, Fingernails, Landscape with Invisible Hand, and The Pod Generation hide amid the larger draws, many featuring intriguing premises but receiving dreadfully mixed reviews. Though failing to live up to the grandeur of Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy, or magnificent oddities like Poor Things, The Kitchen manages to outpace those other films despite severe issues on occasion.
‘The Kitchen’ is Not the Perfect Sci-Fi Film, but Far From the Worst
Leading man Kane Robinson (known better as Kano) earns his first starring role in The Kitchen. The role’s earnestness derives from his and co-director/writer/producer Daniel Kaluuya’s London upbringing; despite the film’s dystopian look, every shot betrays a deeply familiar London influence. The not-too-distant future look combined with the story quickly illuminates a social commentary approach about lower-class struggle in the city, and Kaluuya and his collaborators imbue The Kitchen with a human sentimentality that instantly elevates the film.
Given Kaluuya’s triumphant acting credits in the films Get Out, Queen & Slim, and Judas and the Black Messiah, audiences understandably expected greatness from his directorial debut. However, The Kitchen sadly does not meet those expectations. Many critics agreed that The Kitchen had enough worthwhile, positive qualities to warrant viewing, but online ratings do not tell the same story. Aside from impatience with a slow pacing, the fault likely lies with the ending. The Kitchen ebbs and flows with exciting moments and slowly mounting pressure, but the unsatisfying ending leaves audiences with an underwhelming impression of the whole experience.
An Ill-Fitting Conclusion Can Change a Film for the Worse
Since everything in The Kitchen comes across as intended, no one can fault it for that success. Still, a let-down ending is perhaps the most damnable facet of any less-than-perfect film. In the case of The Kitchen, the central relationship of Robinson’s main character with the young Benji is just about all that comes to fruition as the immersive, Black Mirror-style world dissolves under the weight of ambition. The juggling of topics starts to feel a bit lazy, reminding one too much of that previously mentioned anthology series’ half-hearted, ill-devised satires. Following the inconsistent ups and downs of Black Mirror, The Kitchen fits perfectly among those films the show inspired, even if it only ranks dead center.
While it is certainly a shame to remind us of those other sci-fi films of 2023 that could have been better, The Kitchen remains just enough past the halfway mark to give Kaluuya and co. a chance for future redemption. With everyone’s work in the film commendable, the imperfect experience of The Kitchen is worth recommending with a generous dose of lowered expectations. For every incomplete part of Kaluuya’s first feature-length co-creation, an inspired sequence here and there means The Kitchen passes for at least one watch during the early months of 2024.
The Kitchen is streaming now on Netflix.
