Boiling Point

The nimble, naturalistic performers are uniformly terrific.

The result is a spicy nerve-jangler served with a chargrilled side order of jet-black gallows humour – a divine comedy barrelling towards inevitable tragedy, played out in hell’s kitchen where someone is bound to get burned.

Formally, the film seldom takes its foot off the gas.

Boiling Point grips remorselessly while it’s spinning all these plates, and somehow ladles onto them a smorgasbord of great, frazzled acting from all concerned.

There’s a barreling momentum to the filmmaking that feels true to the cut and thrust of restaurant life, regardless of the script’s digressions.

To the credit of all concerned, however the one-take approach feels appropriate and organic, rather than gimmicky or stunt-like.

Graham, Robinson, and Barantini’s thematic concerns about how restaurants work are strong enough ingredients. It’s too bad they’ve been subjected to the one-note flavoring of a single-take movie.

A Suffocating, Real-Time Culinary Thriller That Drives You Mad as an Addict's Broken Life Crumbles Under Relentless Kitchen Pressure.230311 (4.0)For an addict whose mind and life have entirely collapsed, there is no one left to offer help. The breathtaking one-shot long take makes you feel as though you are losing your mind right alongside the characters; while "The Bear" sprinted forward with relentless speed, this culinary thriller builds a slow-burning, agonizing tension that steadily drives you crazy. The British setting and sharp accents feel remarkably charismatic, and seeing the actor who played the unfaithful officer in "Sherlock" is a welcome surprise. Andy struggles both in his fractured home life and inside the kitchen where he serves as head chef, plagued by constant missteps and lapses, while his junior Carly proves far more dependable. Missing his son Nate's swimming competition, Andy seems to have only recently moved into a proper place after sleeping rough in his office following a divorce. The film vividly captures the harsh scrutiny of health and safety inspections. Robyn, an aspiring actor who constantly attends auditions, shows up late as usual. The restaurant manager scrambles to balance the kitchen, the dining floor, and the bar amid rampant workplace friction, an ordeal made even more intense because it is Christmas Eve—though his endurance makes sense given that the restaurant belongs to his father. Freeman brings fiery, sharp-tongued attitude to the line, while third-week commis chef Billy gets reprimanded for refusing to roll up his sleeves, hiding countless scars from past suicide attempts until pastry chef Emily steps in to comfort him, showing such deep empathy that she tears up upon seeing his wounds. Dishwasher Jake arrives two hours late, enraging everyone, especially the pregnant Sophia who shares his duties; yet despite slacking off, ignoring tasks, and doing drugs, his popularity among the male staff protects him from getting fired as he casually breezes through his shift. Andy's former colleague, celebrity chef Alastair Skye, arrives with food critic Sara Southworth, sparking an insanely petty psychological war as Alastair constantly nudges his mistress Sara to write a scathing review, even while keeping his own marriage separate. Andrea, a mild-mannered waitress, gets taken advantage of easily. The tension turns out to have deep roots when it is revealed Andy previously vanished with two hundred thousand dollars of Alastair's money; claiming he is on the verge of bankruptcy, Alastair aggressively pressures Andy to partner up and buy out the restaurant, demanding a seventy-thirty split in his favor. A guest visiting for a marriage proposal suffers a severe allergic reaction and is rushed to the emergency room after a garnish with walnut oil is carelessly added to a salad; although the manager jotted the allergy note on paper and brought it to the kitchen, the critical communication failed to reach the plating station, triggering a disastrous crisis on a fully booked holiday night. Alastair acts with typical industry sleaziness, imposing his cutthroat survival tactics on Andy while demanding repayment. Andy's constant sipping from a water bottle turns out to be straight alcohol rather than hydration. Incapable of securing a deserved raise for the exceptionally talented Carly, Andy recklessly reveals Alastair's slimy scheme to scapegoat her, driving her to furiously quit on the spot. Pushed past his breaking point by sheer stress, Andy snorts cocaine openly resting in the office and gulps down vodka hidden in his bottle, only to immediately call his ex-wife in a desperate spiral, begging her to tell their son that he loves him, lying that he has stayed clean, and pleading that he wants to stop. With his life completely broken and everyone around him gone, the tragedy of an addiction impossible to escape becomes absolute.

'Boiling Point' is like if 'Birdman' and 'MasterChef' had a baby and 'Climax' raised it.

Boiling Point is 1 hour and 30 minutes of pure, relentless stress. Head chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) arrives to his swanky London restaurant just before it’s due to open. He is desperately trying to keep a handle on both his personal life and work related stresses during one of the busiest nights of the year. Between the surprise visit from a health inspector, tensions between front of house and kitchen staff and some unruly customers (everyone hates influencers for a reason) Andy is reaching his limit. Boiling Point is certainly a film true to its title. The look of a film shot entirely in one take adds to the feeling of mounting pressure and a sense of characters reaching their own limits and boiling over in the hot and fiery kitchen. The fluid camera motion as it drifts between different groups of people in the bustling restaurant definitely added to the sense of impending disaster. It looked very impressive and I can only imagine all the planning that went into this to ensure the entire film could be shot in one take. Not an easy way to make a film but the results speak for themselves. I know the single shot style of filming making annoys some people but in certain films it works very well and Boiling Point is a perfect example. As someone who has never worked in a restaurant I can’t imagine surviving one night as I could barely manage the stress of the film. Stephen Graham was the perfect choice for this role surrounded by a great supporting cast. You feel the frantic chaos from everyone as if you’re sitting right there in the middle of it. A truly immersive experience, highly recommended.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

(Mauro Lanari) Alcoholic, cocaine addict, separated from his wife, in debt, latecomer, sleepless, fresh from move: all the imaginable bad luck. Starting from these premises, things could only end badly for him regardless of the type of work. So the now worn-out location of the restaurant is completely superfluous. Authors like Ozu, Bresson, the Tati of "Playtime" ['67] would have made the breaking/collapse/boiling point more dramatic with the still, static, fixed camera to impotently shot the staging of impotence. Barantini makes the opposite choice: convulsive tale and uninterrupted steadicam for 86 minutes out of 92. Raffaele Meale writes that the director "seems to care more about the rhythm and spatiality to be managed than the psychologies of his characters". "Characters"? Unjustified accumulation of Fantozzian clichés. "There is a sense of dissatisfaction, and also emptiness. An exercise in style, not much more." Tzk: "a reflection on the one-shot film in today's cinema, after Hitchcock, Bazin, Metz" (Alessio Baronci). Wow.