Review: 'Boiling Point'
Getting a second helping of Philip Barantini's 2021 one-shot wonder.
Right, I’m the first to admit it: I’m not a very good cook. If pressed I can make a fairly decent pizza—or even a lasagna—from the ground up. But that is really the limit of my abilities. And even after that, I’m usually covered in flour, fairly stressed and being reprimanded by my wife for spilling pizza topping everywhere.
I do however realize that many carry within them a deep passion for the preparation of food and only get fired up by the stress and excitement of a busy kitchen. And I’ve watched enough Gordon Ramsay to know that it can easily go sideways for even the most professional of chefs.
Stress then is also the main course in Philip Barantini’s feature-length version of his 2019 short Boiling Point. Since its premiere at the 2021 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where I served on the FIPRESCI’s critics' jury, the film has gained recognition for its intense, immersive storytelling, taking something as mundane as a night in a restaurant kitchen to the heights of character-driven drama. And although the film didn’t win our critics' award at the festival, it was a strong contender and my personal favorite of the lineup of the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
With Barantini's upcoming four-part Netflix miniseries Adolescence coming up shortly, where each episode is shot much the same way as Boiling Point, I wanted to take a second look at this chef's kiss of a movie.
In Boiling Point, we’re served a full-course meal of stress, with a side of angst, conflict, and drug abuse, all set during a single night in a high-end London restaurant.
We’re introduced to head chef Andy, who is played by the always excellent and often sinister Stephen Graham (who also happens to star in Barantini’s new miniseries) while he’s on his way to work, smelling of alcohol and regret. Andy is the kind of guy who buries his angst and trauma deep inside while letting the work take over. And through the night, with preparation for opening and the steady stream of guests pouring in, we follow the action, the conflicts and the frustration in one single shot.
Yes, you read that right. In the 90 or so minutes runtime, the story is told through this single shot. We have of course seen this before, maybe most recently, or at least most famously in Sam Mendes’ war epic 1917. But where that film, and others shot this way often makes it feel like a gimmick, Boiling Point draws you in.
I quickly forgot about the fact that the whole film was one single shot (with no “cheating” like in 1917). In a way I felt that I had become the newbie on the kitchen staff, and I had to follow the more experienced cooks and waiters around, all while dodging insults and the occasional flying cutlery.
For like 1917, Boiling Point quickly turns into a pressure cooker of chaos, with infighting among the staff and the diners as “enemy combatants”. There are injuries, shell shock and maybe even a casualty or two.
The diners themselves are an eclectic bunch. There are couples in love, influencers, a desperate rival restaurant owner (played by Jason Flemyng) and even what seemed like some malicious gangster crawled up from the deepest pits of the London underworld to get at the house’s most expensive wine.
So, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how this will go. What begins with a reprimand by the food inspector devolves into an evening full of desperation. We see Andy’s life simmering on the edge before completely boiling over, and we learn not just about him, but his kitchen staff as well.
At first glance, I was a bit skeptical about Boiling Point. With my interest—and skill—in cooking and cooking shows being what it is, a 90-minute film about the drama behind the scenes of a luxury restaurant didn’t seem very appealing. But I heard about the one-shot style, and I did like 1917, so I found myself watching it.
And I was wrong. What I thought would be some sort of dramatized version of a Gordon Ramsay show turned out to be a dramatic, moving and often darkly funny film about one person’s downfall into stress, alcoholism and drug abuse. The pacing didn’t flag, and the drama kept me invested into the characters and their stories.
Boiling Point is a treat. And if you’re hungry for more, BBC even made a 2023 miniseries sequel to the film.