La Cocina (15)

★★★ It’s deftly performed, the pace is appropriately hectic and yet it all seems, in the end, perhaps understandably, very familiar. ~ The Times.

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Featuring an array of outstanding performances led by Raúl  Briones and Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara, LA COCINA is a gripping, exhilarating and truly cinematic new film from acclaimed director Alonso Ruizpalacios.

Amidst the lunch rush of a frantic Manhattan restaurant, a series of events threaten to bring the kitchen to a crashing halt. While food orders flood in and pressure mounts to boiling point, the passionate relationship between chef Pedro and waitress Julia is starting to fray.

But when missing money and shocking revelations cause things to spiral out of control, it’s not long before one of New York’s busiest kitchens is on the verge of imploding. 

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★★★★ Raúl Briones and Rooney Mara simmer erotically in a dazzling New York kitchen drama directed with ferocious brio by Alonso Ruizpalacios ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ A kitchen drama that makes The Bear feel like listening to Enya in a garden centre. Alonso Ruizpalacios’s thrilling, sprawling drama is seldom less than operatic, with an emotional register to match. ~ Irish Times.

★★★★ Based on Arnold Wesker’s 1959 play of the same name, its intricate character relationships and intensely stressful yet balletic kitchen scenes make for compelling viewing, so much so that the 140-minute runtime flies by. ~ Little White Lies.