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Berlinale 2024: ‘La Cocina’ is a Chaotic Movie About Kitchen Assholes
by Alex Billington
February 23, 2024
Everybody is aware of that the majority massive restaurant kitchens are a large number. Everybody additionally is aware of that restaurant staff are overworked, underpaid, normally a number of the most stressed folks on the planet, who work tirelessly the place we will not see them to arrange our meals and hold the restaurant operating at full pace. There have been a variety of good movies made about kitchens and restaurant staff lately (Boiling Level and “The Bear” are two of probably the most outstanding) and now there’s one other new one so as to add to that rising subgenre. La Cocina is the newest characteristic movie made by a Mexican filmmaker named Alonso Ruizpalacios, who directs this B&W drama based mostly on the acclaimed stage play by Arnold Wesker. Alas, La Cocina is sadly a messy, tiresomely chaotic, irritating movie that’s so obsessive about its personal chaos that it turns into annoying to take a seat by means of, particularly the ultimate half-hour. Verify, please! I do not desire a desert at present, I am prepared to depart.
La Cocina is written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, and is about completely in New York Metropolis at a fictional Occasions Sq. restaurant known as The Grill. It opens with some horribly jittery slow-mo footage of individuals in NYC, then focuses on a younger Mexican immigrant lady who makes her approach by means of the hustle & bustle of Manhattan to the restaurant – hoping to get a job. The remainder of the movie is about contained in the confines of this seedy restaurant – which is clearly a set constructed on a sound stage with huge, twisted halls and a unusually organized, large(ly unrealistic) kitchen with 20+ staff inside. The movie then bounces from character to character, shifting focus approach too typically. Lastly it settles on the character of Pedro, performed by Raúl Briones, one other Mexican chef working within the kitchen who appears to command the respect of most of his colleagues. However let’s not beat across the bush – this man is an asshole. He might appear to be a humorous, candy man who’s simply joking round, however because the movie goes on it is clear he’s actually a cocky, conceited bastard who messes with everybody and causes extra chaos within the kitchen than is important. Why does he need to be the principle character on this movie?!
What bothers me probably the most about La Cocina is that just about everybody else discovered within the kitchen – or on the workers in any respect – just about anybody within the restaurant, is an asshole. And there is not sufficient excuses to be made for “that is the purpose!” They can not all be annoying, can they? Is there somebody good working there (except for the preliminary lady Estela, which the movie fully ignores for many if its runtime)? After discovering probably the most charismastic employee, Pedro, to maintain the digital camera pointed at for a lot of the operating time, the movie then shifts into an uncomfortable storyline about his awkward, overbearing relationship with a waitress lady named Julia, performed by Rooney Mara. Regardless of coming throughout as good and type, she apparently can not resist the asshole manliness of Pedro, and regardless of quite a few examples of his abusive, explosive, dangerous perspective, we uncover they’re having a secret restaurant affair and there may be even perhaps one thing extra occurring. What level does this storyline have? Why does or not it’s the main target of a movie that is supposed to be in regards to the craziness of restaurant kitchens? I do not know. Ruizpalacios would not appear to know both – he received misplaced all his hallways.
As a lot as I needed to take pleasure in La Cocina, as a lot as I respect and admire all the cooks and restaurant staff on the market, this movie is an distinctive let down. Simply because this movie is as chaotic and as messy as an actual restaurant kitchen doesn’t make it good. Too many components stuffed into an overlong, meandering plot that wants a minimum of half-hour reduce. There is a good level the place it might’ve ended, nevertheless it decides to maintain rambling on. The fest’s description says that Ruizpalacios’s movie is “a tragic and comedian tribute to the invisible individuals who put together our meals.” Nevertheless, finally it isn’t a tribute to restaurant staff as a lot as it’s a take a look at kitchen trashiness. It is the sort of movie that can make you need to keep away from most eating places, revealing all of the careless, disgusting behind-the-scenes secrets and techniques that Anthony Bourdain put in his e book years in the past. It is the sort of cinema that’ll make you are feeling sick by the tip, since you wasted two hours sitting in a theater when you would’ve been having fun with a pleasant meal at a significantly better restaurant than the one depicted on display screen. Verify the score of this place earlier than you exit – and e book a reservation at some place else as an alternative.
Alex’s Berlinale 2024 Ranking: 4 out of 10
Observe Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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