I remain somewhat perplexed at the lukewarm response to Steve McQueen’s Widows. The star-studded crime drama followed a group of ordinary women, all the widows of criminals, who take on the same heist that killed their husbands. It wasn’t a perfect movie, but it was intense, had grit, and was well-acted. It deserved better. Perhaps The Kitchen, which tells a similar story and features names just as big, will get the attention that Widows didn’t?
The first trailer for The Kitchen certainly shows promise, and some may be attracted to it being an adaptation of a Vertigo comic book series. The ladies doing dirt this time are played by Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss, with Straight Outta Compton writer Andrea Berloff making her directing debut. Set in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen, the story follows the wives of Irish mobsters who take over their husbands’ criminal racket after they are arrested by the FBI.
Standing in their way are a bunch of men, of course; some are in the police, some are within their own ranks as working for a woman isn’t exactly what they signed up for. But if these guys think they’re going to put these women back into the kitchen where they belong, it looks like they want to reconsider.
Also starring Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d’Arcy James, Margo Martindale, Common, and Bill Camp, The Kitchen opens August 9th.
