'The Kitchen' review: Compelling sci-fi movie that doesn't pander

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) makes his feature filmmaking debut as the co-director and co-writer of “The Kitchen,” a dystopian sci-fi picture that suggests he possesses real behind-the-camera talent.

The movie takes place in a futuristic London where public housing has been eliminated.

The story revolves around the majority minority residents of a social housing complex called the Kitchen, where the locals maintain a vibrant community despite being subject to sudden violent police raids, regarded as little more than squatters in their own homes.

Kitchen resident Izi (Kane Robinson) dreams of getting out, moving into a single-occupancy flat of his own. Izi works at a funeral home called Life After Life, where those who cannot afford burials for their loved ones can instead have them turned into trees.

He encounters Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman) there as the boy says goodbye to his late mother, someone Izi used to know. Soon enough, the orphaned child finds his way into the Kitchen and becomes a part of Izi's solitary life.

The co-director, also making a directorial debut, is Kibwe Tavares. The co-writer, Joe Murtagh, has also created the new Paramount+/Showtime series “The Woman in the Wall.”

MY SAY “The Kitchen” takes place in the near future, but has its mind very much on the present, with its story of a public housing complex under siege.

The picture builds its suspense around the ever-present threat of the forces of the open market, and it raises real and important questions about how a place's value and ownership are determined.

It unfolds in a world that resembles our own, albeit with marked technological advances throughout many aspects of everyday life.

The setting has been developed with great care by the directors, who make the smart choice of crafting it as an offshoot of our present day, rather than a whole new construction. The questions the picture raises resonate more deeply because of this.

The movie also benefits from its willingness to forego basic, conventional plot development strategies. It's unafraid of being a slow burn.

The filmmakers take time to fully situate the audience into the Kitchen, resisting the urge to populate the story with simplistic villains or the sort of straightforward archetypal MacGuffin-driven quest that so often becomes the default in movies like this.

It's not a movie for everyone, and it certainly won't appease viewers seeking a fast-paced entertainment that offers escapist distraction. 

But it also shouldn't be misconstrued as a movie that's just about intellectual pursuits.

“The Kitchen” finds its heart in the relationship at its center, developed by the actors with an affecting combination of reticence and warmth. It's easy and natural to be lonely and sad in a world that's so unforgiving. It's much harder to make a connection, to take risks for someone else, and to let the love in.

BOTTOM LINE This is a compelling sci-fi movie, one that does not pander to the usual expectations.