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THE KITCHEN REVIEW

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The Kitchen is an American crime drama film written and directed by Andrea Berloff, in her directorial debut. The film is based on the Vertigo comic book miniseries of the same name by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of Irish mobsters who take over organized crime operations in the 1970s in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood after the FBI arrests their husbands. The film also features Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d'Arcy James, with Margo Martindale, Common, and Bill Camp in supporting roles.

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The Kitchen has a brutal take no prisoners approach when it comes to female representation. It shows women behaving in ways and being in situations that don't normally appear in entertainment and it is shocking and amazing to see. The Kitchen builds on elements that were present in the revolutionary "Thelma and Louise" and is in a way an evolution of the said movie when it comes to women in Hollywood. But The Kitchen gives us the shock factor that "Thelma and Louise" never did which reflects on the modern time movie making. The Kitchen is not your run-of-the-mill gangster movie but is on par whit every other respectable male-led gangster movie. Screenwriter and director Andrea Berloff making her directorial debut got this movie thanks to being a co-writer on "Straight Outta Compton" for which she was oscar-nominated. One of the most interesting things about The Kitchen is that the female leads are criminals, which contradicts the stereotype of women in charge being kinder and gentler than men in charge. Women in crime movies are always portrayed as wives, love interests or moms and only serve men as a place to retrieve to, but in The Kitchen, women are the center of all the action which means there is nowhere to rest. That creates a tension not seen in a crime story before. Andrea Berloff uses score and the surroundings (mainly the shots of the city) to elevate her movie and give it a crime feel and mood. Also as a screenwriter, Berloff makes The Kitchen full of twists which are great and welcomed. Due to the strong cast and performances, who also take the material really serious and it shows, The Kitchen earns its place among other prestige crime movies.

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Melissa McCarthy gives us a strong and dramatic performance which shows a transformation from blindly trusting wife to the hardened kingpin. McCarthy has an amazing speech at the third act which should give her another Academy Award nomination. Tiffany Haddish goes from a comedic energetic actress to an amazing dramatic powerhouse and a truly terrifying opponent. We've never seen Haddish like this but we want more of it. Elisabeth Moss seems a little bit cliche at first but then it all changes and lines up perfectly. After being abused for a long time Moss's character does some of the most morally questionable things in the film and her reasons a tragically unique to women. The Kitchen is not your typical crime story. It's unique to women and that makes it stand out. The movie doesn't shy away from problems (again unique to women) that are in front of the three leads and handles it with honesty as to what would really happen in such a situation.

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