‘The Kitchen’ review: a bleak and brutal vision of London’s future

You only have to look at Daniel Kaluuya’s film resume to know it’s important that the actor’s roles have something important to say. From his turn in Jordan Peele’s 2017 social thriller Get Out, to playing real life Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah, Kaluuya has solidified his reputation as an actor that excels in fictional stories born out of real issues.

• Read more: How Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares cooked up dystopian drama The Kitchen

It should come as no surprise, then, that Kaluuya always had it in him to upgrade to the director’s seat on his feature debut The Kitchen. Helmed alongside Kibwe Tavares and co-penned with Joe Murtagh, the dystopian social drama is set in 2044, and follows loner Izi (Kane ‘Kano‘ Robinson), who’s saving up to move out of the eponymous urban London mega-estate and into a significantly upgraded (though comically soulless, Black Mirror-style) condo. But when he meets the recently bereaved Benji (newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman) – after his mother’s funeral at Izi’s workplace, an eco-futuristic morgue where ashes are grown into plants – Izi takes him under his wing.

Kano follows up his acclaimed Top Boy role with a tender performance that veers from paternally warm to cruelly distant. His chemistry with the young Bannerman is terrific, who’s at risk of losing his innocence when a biker gang led by Hope Ikpoku Jnr (another Top Boy alum) grooms him to join their raids. Explaining to Benji that they steal to redress the balance in a system that’s left them behind, it’s a thoughtful if not fleeting examination of crime and class that’s often reduced to villainous cliches.

After all, The Kitchen itself is a living, breathing ground zero of social issues, from gentrification to the housing crisis to police brutality. A towering complex of boxy studio apartments jut out into the skyline like a shanty town, but the community is alive and well. A bustling marketplace is bursting at the seams with life and splashed with vibrant Blade Runner-aesthetics. This integration of cyberpunk influence into a London setting is especially refreshing, refraining from clumsy techno orientalist tropes that are often fumbled in dystopian blockbusters.

Pockets of joy can also be found all over The Kitchen, from the broadcasts of an enigmatic pirate radio DJ (Arsenal football legend Ian Wright) who feels reminiscent of Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, to a roller rink where residents dance the iconic routine to Cameo’s ‘Candy’.

Tenants also look out for each other to warn of regular, brutal raids from riot police who claim they’re illegally occupying the space. One chilling scene sees Benji choke out the words “I can’t breathe”, the phrase that became a rallying cry for justice in the Black Lives Matter movement.

However, The Kitchen loses some of its potency by balancing too many elements – the world-building, societal context, interpersonal relationships and the paternal bonding that deserves to be the nucleus. Each building block lacks sufficient screen time, so there’s not enough substance to become invested in the stakes. Nevertheless, Kaluuya’s directorial vision is promising and already pushing the envelope. He and Tavares just needed to dive a little deeper into the thrilling world they’ve so convincingly built.