In the 1970s, Hell’s Kitchen, a gritty Midtown neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan, was ‘owned’ by the Irish mob.
THE KITCHEN movie: In 1978, when the FBI sent their mobster husbands to prison, out of necessity Kathy Brennan (Melissa McCarthy) a devoted mother of two, Ruby O’Carroll (Tiffany Haddish) an African American outsider, and Claire Walsh (Elisabeth Moss) a battered housewife, band together to take over the Irish Mafia’s work.
As it turned out, the three Hell’s Kitchen housewives prove to be fiercely capable, if not better, at everything the men in the Mob did, from extortion to murder.
And murder becomes especially appealing to Claire Walsh who connects with Gabriel O’Malley (Domhnall Gleeson), a former Mob hitman.
It took a while into the movie before I realized that The Kitchen is a very dark comedy and not a serious crime drama. With over-the-top violence and perfectly nuanced acting on the part of all three actresses (actually the entire cast), The Kitchen is gruesomely entertaining.
Stewart Stewart and I (Dena Stewart) give THE KITCHEN 3 Mustaches. The depravity was riveting.
as Kathy Brennan
as Ruby O’Carroll
as Claire Walsh
CAST: Domhnall Gleeson as Gabriel O’Malley. Bill Camp as Alfonso Coretti. Margo Martindale as Helen O’Carroll. Brian d’Arcy James as Jimmy Brennan. James Badge Dale as Kevin O’Carroll. Jeremy Bobb as Rob Walsh. Alicia Coppola as Maria Coretti. E.J. Bonilla as Gonzalo Martinez. James Ciccone as Joe Goon. John Sharian as Duffy. Stephen Singer as Herb Kanfer. Brandon Uranowitz as Shmuli Chudakoff. Common as Gary Silvers, an FBI agent. Directed by Andrea Berloff.
