La Cocina set for UK release in March

By Oleno Netto 25 January, 2025

La Cocina (2024) is the fourth feature film directed by Alfonso Ruizpalacios. Ruizpalacios was also in charge of writing the screen adaption of the play The Kitchen (1961), by Arnold Wesker, changing the city where it is set from London to New York.

The city that never sleeps is seen as a blur of images and sounds as Estela (Anna Díaz) tries to find her way until a restaurant based in Times Square, where she hopes someone from her hometown in Mexico will get her a job. This someone is Pedro (Raúl Briones), a hot-blooded and charismatic cook, who’s seeing one of the place’s waitresses, Julia (Rooney Mara).

Throughout a busy Friday lunch shift, Pedro and Julia try to figure out what to make of the baby she’s expecting, whom he wants to parent but she doesn’t want to have. All whilst many hands — mostly belonging to illegal immigrant employees — are working in the kitchen and serving orders to the tables. Tensions escalate when over $800 American Dollars from the shift before supposedly go missing and management tries to find out who’s stolen them.

The agile photography, mainly shot in black and white, and the jazzy score, reminiscent of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), dictate the film’s pace, which is mostly hectic. Ruizpalacios gets the right balance between a realistic depiction of a busy restaurant kitchen with absurdist situations, which sometimes leave audience members torn between gasping or laughing out loud. La Cocina’s leads, Briones and Mara, have great chemistry on screen, and are supported by a strong ensemble — including Laura Gómez, who played the unforgettable Blanca Flores in Orange Is The New Black.

Underpinning all of the different situations shown in the film is the pursuit of the ever-elusive American dream by disenfranchised folks, immigrants and so forth. It is telling of how things haven’t changed that the main theme of a film released over six decades after its source material is still relevant — hauntingly more so after President Donald Trump’s reelection.

La Cocina is currently screening in the USA and in Mexico. The UK release date is 28th March 2025.


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