The Kitchen
The Kitchen
In a dystopian future London where all social housing has been eliminated, Izi and Benji fight to navigate the world as residents of The Kitchen, a community that refuses to abandon their home.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
Was eager to check out Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut and while I found it to be a little bit of a mixed bag as a whole, there’s enough here that I really liked that has me at least interested in seeing what Kaluuya has in store for the future. What I love most is the sci-fi dystopian London he’s built that looks believably futuristic blowing up the CGi budget. The film brushes up against themes of gentrification, class divide, and community, but really focuses the drama on a pseudo (or perhaps not pseudo) father-son relationship of Izi and Benji played by Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman. When Benji’s mom dies and he attends the funeral at Izi’s work, Benji notices Izi paying his respects to his deceased mother and begins to suspect that Izi could be his father. A new found family could jeopardize Izi’s chances for survival and limit his upward mobility.
Again, really loved some of the pieces here, but didn’t completely fall in with the overall story. Kaluuya, though, impressed me with his directorial vision. Worth checking out.