Boiling Point

I thought it was very good, above all for how realistic it is in showing a professional kitchen when everything starts to go wrong at the same time. You don't need to have worked in hospitality to notice the stress, the pressure, the egos, the mistakes, the hierarchies and that feeling that any small error can spread to everything.

The single take isn't an empty trick. Here it makes all the sense in the world, because it puts you inside the restaurant and forces you to live the night with no escape, almost as if you were another member of the team. There is no breather, no cut to relieve the tension, and that makes the film suffocating in a very effective way.

Stephen Graham is huge. He holds up the film with a mix of tiredness, rage, anxiety and vulnerability that is very believable. But you can also tell that this works as an ensemble piece: kitchen, dining room, customers, bosses, personal problems... everything adds up so that the chaos has a life of its own.

The best thing is that it doesn't seem a film "about chefs" in the pretty or glamorous sense. It isn't about beautiful dishes or culinary romanticism, but about wear and tear, constant pressure and how a complicated night can turn into a hellish spiral. That is where I find it most honest and most powerful.

Besides, the tension is very well measured. It starts strong, piles up problems, frictions and mistakes, and little by little leaves you with the feeling that something is going to end up breaking. And although some things may seem a bit forced as it heads toward the climax, the whole has so much truth that this weighs less.

Overall, I think it's a very good, very tense and very well built film. The single take is impressive, yes, but the best part isn't the technical trick: it's how it makes you feel that you have spent that night inside that restaurant.