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‘La Cocina’ Review: Alonso Ruizpalacios Sharpens the Knives for This Look Inside a Chaotic New York Kitchen
Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones play a couple struggling to juggle their relationship with the demands of an intense restaurant job.
In Ruizpalacios’ version, practically the entire staff — not Rooney Mara ’s pregnant waitress, but the ones touching the food, at least — are immigrants caught between the proverbial frying pan (sweating into their orders amid the midday rush) and the fire (of losing their work status, which exposes them to the risk of deportation). There’s a dreamy, slightly amateurish quality to the slow-motion prologue, which follows Estela (Anna Diaz), a young Mexican immigrant with experience in a Michelin-starred restaurant, as she makes the pilgrimage to this glamorously located but otherwise unremarkable establishment to interview for a job. The way Ruizpalacios handles his ensemble — nearly 20 employees, ranging from tough-love manager Rashid (Oded Fehr) to the lowliest busboy — mirrors the energy of a boisterous, late-career Altman movie, even if DP Juan Pablo Ramírez’s crisp monochrome cinematography suggests something scrappier (more in line with the helmer’s indie debut, “Güeros”).
Or read this on Variety
