The first US feature from talented Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios (if you haven’t seen A Cop Movie, stream it now!), La Cocina makes The Bear look like a pussycat. The Grill is a New York greasy spoon, and the film follows an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Estella (Anna Diaz) , thrown in at the deep end on her first day working alongside chef Pedro (Raúl Briones), whose affair with one of the waitresses, Julia (Rooney Mara) is in crisis: she is due to have an abortion this afternoon. On top of which, last night’s reckoning is $800 short. Did someone on staff take it? The work is unremitting, tempers flare, the soda machine floods. Shot in black and white, this is based on a 1957 play by Arnold Wesker set in London, but it feels plugged right into the fault lines short circuiting the US right now.
A blast of furious energy that also knows when to let up, with a few moments of gentle lyricism as punctuation. One of the year’s freshest films…
Mark Olsen, LA Times
Alonso Ruizpalacios
Rooney Mara, Raúl Briones, Anna Diaz
Mexico/USA
2024
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
First Look Fridays: $10 Tickets
Enjoy $10 tickets at this film’s first Friday matinee screening.
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Alonso Ruizpalacios
Cinematography
Juan Pablo Ramírez
Editor
Yibrán Asuad
Original Music
Tomás Barreiro
Production Design
Sandra Cabriada
Also Playing
Decorado
In existential crisis, a middle-aged mouse increasingly believes the world is unreal, much like a film set. As his suspicions grow increasingly credible, will he accept his fate, or hatch one last bid for freedom?
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible
Whether he was a man, a musician, or an emissary from Saturn (as he claimed), Sun Ra was one of the unique visionaries of the 20th century. Christine Turner’s documentary explores the legacy of this iconoclastic who turned his life into a work of art.
La Grazia
Hot from opening the Venice Film Festival, this is a serious ethical drama from director Paolo Sorrentino and his long-serving collaborator, actor Toni Servillo, who plays a fictional Italian President wrestling with a moral dilemma.
Image: © Andrea Pirrello
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
This gritty, Bronx-set romance follows two teenagers in love, an unplanned pregnancy, and the poverty that encumbers them. And yet, this is a vivacious, heartwarming work — funny without being frivolous and tender without being sentimental.