The Kitchen is a new crime drama directed and written by Andrea Berloff. This is only the first film she has directed. She is also known as a co-writer of films such as Straight Outta Compton, Sleepless and Blood Father.
The film is set in 1978 where three members of the Irish Mafia are arrested by the FBI in Hell's Kitchen. This leaves their wives without further illegal income. Kathy (Melissa McCarthy), Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Claire (Elisabeth Moss) decide to take over the places of their husbands at the Irish Mafia to keep them under their control and still get money. In this way, they successfully manage the criminal organization of their partners and eliminate competition from other criminal organizations. This film comes across as a lesser version of last year's Widows film. In that film, wives also copied crime practices from their partners, but this film played in more modern times. Because this film is set in the 70s, it is more difficult to take the story seriously that Irish wives can easily run the Mafia world. You would expect that the American or Italian Mafia would try to take over. The rest of the Irish Mafia also takes the orders of the three women a little too smoothly. You would expect a male member who would react more rebelliously.
That this is the first film that Andrea Berloff has only directed and written, is reflected in the quality of the film. The story is told too unclearly and apart from the fact that you know that the three women are married to the Irish Mafia leaders, you don't know much about their characters. Elisabeth Moss is actually the only character that gives you some background information. The film also has too many scenes in which your characters can only see place to place without any further meaning. You also do not see clearly that the three women commit criminal acts. They actually talk more about acts they have done without you seeing this as a viewer. For example, this film actually talks more about the criminal acts than actually shown.
The film is set in 1978 where three members of the Irish Mafia are arrested by the FBI in Hell's Kitchen. This leaves their wives without further illegal income. Kathy (Melissa McCarthy), Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Claire (Elisabeth Moss) decide to take over the places of their husbands at the Irish Mafia to keep them under their control and still get money. In this way, they successfully manage the criminal organization of their partners and eliminate competition from other criminal organizations. This film comes across as a lesser version of last year's Widows film. In that film, wives also copied crime practices from their partners, but this film played in more modern times. Because this film is set in the 70s, it is more difficult to take the story seriously that Irish wives can easily run the Mafia world. You would expect that the American or Italian Mafia would try to take over. The rest of the Irish Mafia also takes the orders of the three women a little too smoothly. You would expect a male member who would react more rebelliously.
That this is the first film that Andrea Berloff has only directed and written, is reflected in the quality of the film. The story is told too unclearly and apart from the fact that you know that the three women are married to the Irish Mafia leaders, you don't know much about their characters. Elisabeth Moss is actually the only character that gives you some background information. The film also has too many scenes in which your characters can only see place to place without any further meaning. You also do not see clearly that the three women commit criminal acts. They actually talk more about acts they have done without you seeing this as a viewer. For example, this film actually talks more about the criminal acts than actually shown.