Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and on Digital is the crime drama, The Kitchen.
The Kitchen stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elizabeth Moss, Domhnall Gleeson, and Common, to name a few.
To be honest, I was surprised to see McCarthy and Haddish in a crime drama. I know they’ve done dramas, but I’m used to seeing them in comedies.
The film takes place in the late 70’s in an area of New York City known as “Hell’s Kitchen.”
McCarthy plays Kathy Brennan is married to a member of the Irish mob named Jimmy. Haddish plays Ruby O’Carroll, who is married to a man named Kevin, who is also part of the Irish mob. Lastly we have Moss, who plays Claire Walsh, who is married to an abusive man named Rob.
One night, all three husband’s are captured by the FBI and sentenced to prison. As a result, a man named “Little Jackie,” becomes the head of the Irish mob. He offers to help take care of the women while their husband’s are incarcerated, but what he provides is not enough for them to live on.
The three women find out that many of the local businesses are not happy with “Little Jackie,” so they start collecting collection fees and helping out the neighborhood. They start to turn a profit.
“Little Jackie” finds out about their arrangements and goes after them, but he is taken care of by a former Irish mob enforcer.
Now that “Little Jackie” is out of the way, the women take charge over the neighborhood.
When the Italian mafia finds out about the women and what they are doing in their neighborhood (and the profit they are making as a result), the head of the mafia, Alfonso Coretti, offers to make a deal with them, using getting their husband’s released from prison as part of it. Coretti offers to support the women, and give them mover of the city to control, if they make a deal with him.
Their husband’s do get released, but things are not for the better. In fact, everything they worked so hard on accomplishing starts to unravel. There is even a contract out on their heads by members of their own gang.
Will the wives go back to their old lives and let their husband’s take over again? Or will their husband’s have to take a “backseat” to their wives new, powerful positions? Will anyone find a “happy ending?” To find out, you need to pick up or rent The Kitchen. Look for it where ever movies are sold or rented.
There are some bonus features with this title.
“The Kitchen” Blu-ray contains the following special features:
- Running Hell’s Kitchen – Cast, crew and others talk about the making of the film, mob movies, and working together.
- Taking Over the Neighborhood – Several people from the film discuss shooting in New York City and recreating the film’s late-1970s look, as well as how expensive it is to love in NYC.
- Deleted Scene between Ruby and her husband in a restaurant. This is one of those scenes where I don’t know if it would have made a difference in the overall story, or not.
“The Kitchen” DVD contains the following special feature:
- Running Hell’s Kitchen
Interestingly enough, there are not that many bonus features with this film. Normally films have a lot of bonus content, so this was a surprise to me.
I have seen McCarthy is more serious roles (but I do prefer her comedies). I just never saw her in a role such as this one. It was hard for me to disassociate McCarthy the comedian from McCarthy the ruthless and fearless mob boss.
It was even hard for me to see Haddish in this role. The only films I have ever seen her in have been comedies. I have never seen her in a drama before. As for Moss, I have seen her in serious roles, so that was easy enough for me to “get on board” with.
I’m more into comedies and horror films, but this one seemed interesting ever since I first saw the trailer for it (see below for the theaterical trailer). There was just something about it that I liked.
Overall I enjoyed the film. Its hard to think that mob/mafia stuff like that is real and it’s still like that today (although more ruthless, I’m sure).
What I find interesting about this film is that woman are the dominant characters in this crime drama. Normally it’s always men who are the primary characters and the women the secondary characters. I guess you can chalk this film up to gender equality, especially because the women carried this film so well.
There is a lot of violence in this film. I’m not particularly keen on that, but I suppose it was necessarily to show how heartless and mean the mob/mafia can be. It’s also not the type of film where you root for the main characters, or at least I didn’t feel that way. The women turned out to be just as cold-hearted as their male counterparts. Its hard to root for people who use violence to get their point across. This is far from a “feel good” movie too. It’s dark and violent, despite the comedic leads.
I did like this film, but I am not entirely sure if I would watch it again and again like I do Goodfellas, or my husband does with the 900 hour long Godfather films (LOL).
You can check out The Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The official hastag is #TheKitchen. Or you can try #TheKitchenMovie.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener copy to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.