La Cocina
La Cocina
In the sweltering back kitchen of a Times Square restaurant, undocumented cook Pedro is caught between mounting pressures at work and a complicated romance with waitress Julia. When money goes missing, suspicion spreads, igniting tensions that threaten to upend the fragile hopes of the staff.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 1, 2025
La Cocina is a visually stunning descent into a nightmarish hellscape, brought to life through lush, evocative black-and-white cinematography which includes a ten minute long oner.
At the center of this tangled, pressure-cooker tale is the fraught relationship between Raúl Briones and Rooney Mara, whose performances ground the film’s exploration of immigration, the American dream, and power dynamics.
Mara’s Julia, newly pregnant and resolute in her decision to have an abortion, collides with Briones’ character, Pedro, a man torn between love and his own unspoken ambitions. He’s tender and fiercely loyal, the kind of charismatic figure everyone in the kitchen knows and gravitates toward—but he’s also hot-tempered, a frequent spark for conflict. As Julia questions whether his pleas to keep the baby stem from genuine affection or a calculated path to citizenship, their relationship becomes an emotional powder keg.
Meanwhile, the restaurant is thrown into chaos when a stash of money goes missing. The owner’s ruthless inquisition of the kitchen staff lays bare the fragile hierarchies and oppressive dynamics that underpin their lives, adding another layer of tension to this already volatile world.
The film feels a bit on the long side, but it’s an engaging watch and a beautiful film to look at (save for the couple stuttered camera shots).