Film: La Cocina (The Kitchen)

These two days are Meetup. Tonight, I was back with Movie Roadhouse London (MRL) for La Cocina, another frantic kitchen drama, set in a restaurant in Times Square, with Rooney Mara as a waiter. In what looks like a caricature of a prison uniform, with stripes. Showing in Curzon Soho.

Handily enough, work is light these days, so I could head off early - just in time to see my bus pass. Hate that - but another was along not long after. As the cinema is so close to Chinatown, I headed for New Loon Fung to eat beforehand - which was nice and empty. I see they automatically provide you with a fork now - well, me at least - which was handy. Had my usual - and despite the lack of customers, a waiter still managed to serve me the order from the next table! This was quickly remedied, but without apology.. still, service was quick, and the meal was good. My fortune cookie informed me that "good news would arrive by text". Still waiting for that.. Meantime, an American-sounding couple at a nearby table, whose voices carried enough for me to hear, were asking the waiter what prawn crackers were. Fancy.. I very nearly went over to explain.

Headed over to the cinema in good time, to find a couple of the group already there - and asking me about Darkfield. Well, for goodness' sake - I've been talking about it for ages! Goes to show, you should listen to me.. Anyway, interestingly, although the film we were there to see wasn't horror, the conversation was pretty much along those lines - possibly inspired by the aforementioned. We had a fine chat until it was time to go in - even if the background music, chosen by the staff, was on the weird side.. and I have to say, it's handy to have a staffed bar downstairs, unlike Curzon Bloomsbury, so I don't end up performing a balancing act with the wine!

La Cocina isn't your typical kitchen drama. There's a touch of the surreal about it from the get-go - almost exclusively shot in artistic black and white, it starts with a young immigrant, barely speaking English, who has arrived in New York on the promise of a job working with this guy she knows from her hometown, Pedro. After a cursory interview, she's in, finds him, starts working. He's an experienced chef, and at the start of the film, has some altercation with another chef, on whom he apparently pulled a knife, for some reason.

And so we're into the manic prep sessions, then a cooling off period for lunch. There's a love story between Pedro and Rooney Mara, which drives most of the interest of the film - combine that with a kerfuffle about missing takings, and the general rough and tumble of a commercial kitchen, and you're guaranteed a busy film.

More than that though, there's a rhythm to it - if a manic one. One thing or another keeps us on our toes throughout - and at times, the frantic pace makes it feel like an out-of-control subway train. For most of it, however, there's a logic - the pace is supposed to be hectic, driven in the early part of the film by the banter among co-workers - mainly the Spanish-speaking ones, who seem to be in the majority. When the characters take a break after lunch, the film slows right down, and they chill, become introspective. And then we're into the evening session - and it's not an exaggeration to say that all hell breaks loose.

As well as the regular semi-ordered chaos of a kitchen that serves paying customers, we have the question of immigration, of course - a whole kitchen-full of illegals, by the sound of it. And a good part of the film focuses on their hopes, their dreams.. as typified by Pedro, in what you could say is an aspirational relationship. Hoping to achieve legal status, hoping to find the American dream - or just a comfortable life. But what do you do when all hope is lost..?

All I can say is, I wouldn't like to be a diner in that restaurant.. but as a viewer, at a distance, it's a roller-coaster ride. Buckle up, it's good fun!

A couple of the group went for food afterwards, but I wasn't hungry, and of course I need to be up in the morning (should be in bed already)! On the bus home though, I had a fun time re-reading part of the book I'd mentioned during the social beforehand.. my favourite horror book ever, A Book of Bones.. now, if only I had the space in my life for more reading, these days!

And tomorrow, back with London Classical Music and Theatre Group, for the first time in nearly a year! We're going to a classical concert at the Barbican, and I've booked to eat beforehand in Cote Barbican, which at one time was my local restaurant. My companion from my last Swiss trip is joining me there.

Then back to Ireland for the weekend, of course, where Saturday's film is The Amateur, in which Rami Malek does, going by the trailer, a fair job of convincing as a computer specialist at the CIA whose wife is killed by terrorists, and who decides to go into the field - something he's not accustomed to - to avenge her. Laurence Fishburne is the agent tasked with training him. I'm going to the Omniplex for it - funnily enough, MRL is going to it the same day, in London!

On Monday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Ghosts, a contemporary reimagining of the play by Ibsen, at the Lyric Hammersmith.

On Tuesday, I'm going to Tallis Lamentations for Holy Week by Tenebrae, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. 

Next Wednesday, I booked with London Literary Walks for The Fitzroy Square Walk - and wouldn't you know it, they're meeting in The Greene Man, which is my go-to for food around the area..! But then.. well, in Darkfield, the only show I haven't seen is Visitors - which, as well as being solely for couples, was completely sold out. However.. due to popular demand, they extended the run to the 17th - and a member of The Hideout agreed to be my +1 for Visitors, saying it sounded interesting! That was the day he suggested, though.. and all the early shows were already sold out! So we're going to the 7.30 show, and I had to cancel the walk. (All Visitors shows for that day are now sold out, but there is still availability for the 17th.) We're heading to The Blues Kitchen for food beforehand.

And on the 17th, I'm flying back to Ireland for a short Easter break - back in London on the evening of the 21st..