Boiling Point (2022) review

 This 2021 British release is six years too young to appear on IMDB's 2015 edition of the top 1000 films of all time.

Andy (Stephen Graham) is a head chef of a top London restaurant during one busy service. We get a day in the life both he and his team including his sous-chef Carly (Vinette Robinson) and the Maitre-D Beth (Alice Feetham.)

Boiling Point is a one-take film. There aren't any cuts anywhere, as such it has a brilliant energy that keeps the film so engrossing to watch. Day-in-the-life films could have the tendency to be boring or repetitive but that was far from the case here. The action always remained urgent and immediate.

In many ways, it stayed true to what it must be like to work in a kitchen. Thankfully, I never have done, but I have heard the stories. I know that it is a stressful, fast-paced environment. That is especially true of Boiling Point where personalities clash and some big mistakes are made.

Stephen Graham was excellent as the over-stressed head-chef juggling a nasty divorce and his intense job. Meanwhile, he is hiding a dark secret. He is a brilliant actor who is so versatile. This is the same man who plays a gangster in Boardwalk Empire, a soldier in Band of Brothers, a white nationalist in this is England and a prison office in Time.

Yet he can't take all the credit, as there were no weak links in the cast. Boiling Point succeeded b making all its characters interesting. Even though some have more screentime than others, I found myself caring about all of Andy's kitchen brigade from the porters to the pastry chefs.

And we also see the struggles of the front-of-house staff as waitresses Robyn (Aine Rose Daly) and Andrea (Lauryn Ajufo.) have to deal with the rudest (and in Andrea's case) racist customers. For many service staff who deals with these Karens on a daily basis, I'm sure these scenes hit far too close to home. And these customers were Karens to the extreme from telling Andrea how to pour wine and demanding that their roast lamb be cooked well done when it is traditionally served rare.

Meanwhile, there are other customers - or, rather, influencers with ten thousand followers who think they're too good for the restaurant's elegant menu, instead asking for steak and chips. Maitre'D Beth is only too happy to oblige which only puts more stresses on the kitchen. There's so much going on that there is never a dull moment. It's all a pressure cooker waiting to explode.

And that comes in Carly's evisceration of Beth. Both actresses shone especially Alice Feetham who is forced to keep herself from crying despite having her arse handed to her. It's a brilliant little scene.

And that is a perfect way to summarise Boiling Point. Think of it as a ten-course tasting menu where we have a collection of little dishes that wouldn't be much on their own, but come together to create a delicious meal.