The Kitchen

Speaking of female gangsters, no review of The Kitchen should overlook Margo Martindale, who steals every scene she’s in as a mob matriarch — a gravelly voiced monster with a gutter mouth and a big photo of John F. Kennedy on her wall. Martindale gets to be evil and has as much fun onscreen as she can without smiling.

Full antihero equality will only be achieved when women are permitted to carry a crime drama by being so charismatic that viewers would consider following them into hell rather than give up the buzz they get from watching them be bad.

They’re made women in an underworld that doesn’t want them, and while that theme is sufficiently explored, The Kitchen disappointingly fails to explore the racial politics it hints at and, aside from the main trio, is full of characters who feel paper thin. The results aren’t criminal, per se, but the movie more often finds mediocrity instead of real nuance.

The Kitchen flits through scenes, coming across as its own trailer rather than a full movie. And it makes disappointing use of its great components, wasting three chewy, thoughtful core performances.

There is mismatch of tone and content throughout The Kitchen, which is never sure how to pair its lurid turns of plot with its intersectional feminist ambitions.

It’s quite an achievement to combine career low points for all three of the female leads, but a film that spends so much time capturing shots of characters walking sassily through the streets of 70s Hell’s Kitchen at the expense of characterisation clearly has its priorities fried.

This humorless, sadistically violent wreck has not a single satisfying second. It does, however, have more than 50 F-bombs.

I really don't know why peoples gave a bad review to this movie. It's honestly really good

It was watchable and I didnt think like it is boring or anything, but the story itself seemed quite simple. And even some of the twists it did have seemed rushed and like without substance. Also felt at times a bit unrealistic, but overall not that bad as some say here.

Since Melissa McCarthy & Tiffany Haddish are known for their comedy, you might expect a fun look at gangster life. You'd be mistaken. This is a serious story about 3 women who start running their Hell's Kitchen branch of the Irish mob after their husbands are jailed. All of the actors are strong, but it's actually, the 3rd star (Elisabeth Moss) who turns in the most compelling performance (along with the always wonderful Margo Martindale in a supporting role). The story follows typical gangster guidelines, but the machinations seem too simplified for such a complex situation. While it's never boring, the bland direction by first timer Andrea Berloff renders the it rather tame (even with a few acts of mild violence). A bit of humor would have made the dramatic moments more effective. See it for the women in the leads, but don’t expect a memorable mobster drama.

Elisabeth Moss evidently has more talent than Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish although that really doesn't exempt her from anything because although it can be said that her work is better than that of her co-stars, in no way helps to make this a better film. And what a failure this film is.

If you want to watch a crime movie with an all-female lead then do yourself a favour and watch Widows instead. The Kitchen, no not that kitchen, Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s. Mobster’s wives Kathy (Melissa McCarthy), Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Claire (Elizabeth Moss) are forced to step up and get their hands dirty when their husbands are unexpectedly arrested for a botched robbery. It may start off a bit shaky for the women but quick enough the women turn out to better at the work than the men ever were. Not that we’d really know because all the men barely have anything to do other than show up do something awful and then leave again, in fact the only interesting character in The Kitchen is the psychotic Domhnall Gleeson. Unfortunately he’s not around enough to have much of an impact. The rest of The Kitchen was just a boring mess and I couldn’t wait for it to end. I don’t feel it knew what genre to comfortably fit in, at times it’s going for a dark and gritty crime film but then swiftly moves into a comedy with an upbeat soundtrack while the women walk down the street in their new outfits smirking at what a better job they’re doing over the men. I like to see films where women are kicking ass but this is so forced I didn’t buy into it at all. You can’t just get a few popular actors, throw them into a mediocre crime movie and wing it hoping that’s enough. Spoiler alert it’s not, the result is forced, tonally all over the place and not recommended.