The Kitchen (2024): A Futuristic Story of Struggle and Community

Another movie coming to Netflix this month is The Kitchen, it had an early release on the UK past Friday, on the other side of the ocean there are some very interesting movies and actors from UK and from time to time I like to experiment and watch their movies, there is just something similar but different of street culture from UK to America and to be honest UK seems more rough on the edges , The Kitchen is a story of adventure, drama, somewhat futuristic of struggle and community, directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya, shows a dystopian London in which all forms of social housing have been removed, leaving just The Kitchen, a resilient community fighting to keep its home. This movie premiered at the BFI London movie Festival in October 2023 and is scheduled for release on Netflix in January 2024, there has been some confusion on the release date but on America as I mention is set for this Friday, follows the story of a men still living at The Kitchen who has to make changes on his life after crossing paths with a kid called Benji, a master thief looking for a big heist, and Benji, a 12 year old orphan going through life looking for the affection of a family that sometimes can be any group of people that makes him feel like home.

I started making this kind of posts as to an anticipation of movies and TV series, similar to my "What I'll be watching on..." to cover the pre and post, this type of content is not as complex when it comes to writing and illustrations although I will be changing both in the near future as I plan to make my content more attractive for search engines now that Inleo has this ever green content reward plan, things will keep evolving across time and that's what I'm planing to do with my regular posting process.

As always, before start talking about the movie I like to dive into the ensemble cast so we can have a clear idea on what to expect from the actors of 'The Kitchen' packing some known talent online, not that I know anything of them to be honest. Kane Robinson playing the role of Kano on the movie, brings quite a set of skills as he is a musician but have also work on other video productions like the TV Series Top Boy that has some similarities to The Kitchen.

Jedaiah Bannerman who plays the role of Benji was a hard one to research since I cant find anything else than The Kitchen on his IMDB profile, he has been mention as a newly discovered talent after he auditioned at the age of 14 for the role of Benji, despite not appearing on the screen before both Daniel Kaluya and Kibwe Tavares have put their faith on the young star.

Hope Ikpoku Jr, Teija Kabs, Demmy Ladipo, Cristale and BackRoad Gee. Shot in London and Paris between March and June 2022, the movie takes place primarily within the former London Electricity Board building, serving as the setting for The Kitchen. Iconic monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum also make appearances, adding refreshing relation to the countries the movie was shot at.

The origin of “The Kitchen” comes from a conversation in a barbershop between Daniel Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Emmerson in 2014. Selected for the Sundance Writing and Directing Lab in 2016, this project marks the debut of both for Tavares as for Kaluuya as directors. Tavares, founder of Factory Fifteen specializing in animation and visual effects, joins Kaluuya, his astonishing career began with roles in television series such as “Skins” and later expanded to other productions in the movie industry, some of them “Get Out”, “Black Panther” and “ “Judas and the Black Messiah.” His achievements include tons of awards, including an Academy Award and BAFTA awards, solidifying his position as a leading actor in the industry.

Although The Kitchen has received divided reviews and to be honest is not doing that well on IMDB with a poor score of 6.4 similar to what the audience currently say at Rottentomatoes, critics on the other hand have praise its originality, creativity and interpretation of what could be the future story of any community under such circunstances, the movie does show a lot of empathy between the main characters trying to express the understanding from Kano to Benji as he tries to protect him and showing him how to survive a world he was not probably created for, the movie also seem to have a slow pace based on descriptions and reviews I found online so probably is more about showing how The Kitchen is all about with scenes of their day by day and this can turn boring at times, the trailer does look very melow at certain scenes too and this could be because there is a lot of drama to be expected out of the dialog when Kano and others living at The Kitchen starts to show their struggle as the less favored, there is rebellion and confrontation with the police and the need for people to defend their rights and fight against oppression.

I would not count this movie out to be honest, how many times have I seen movie or TV series scores go down the drain just because of the current crystal generations ruling over this sites or critics who are not realistic, although I cant say that from Rottentomatoes critics since over that site the movie does have a good score of 86% acceptance so it seems opinions are divided, I'm a fan of Daniel Kaluuya and now as a director I think he has the experience and knows what is to be on great productions like NOPE, Black Panther, Get Out and Judas and the Black Messiah just to mention a few that he has been in but the ones more popular among viewers, I think he can now transmit all that talent and also demand performance from the cast enroll on this film specially a young star like Jedaiah Bannerman, I'm a fan of this type of movies where society falls and rise with full force after been set apart, now this separate worlds emerge from the struggle, there is something very special on simple things that's the case when we humans have less we live our life with the most joy, after all it is JUST A MOVIE, it only needs to be entertaining.