The Kitchen

I was perusing the Independent category on Netflix and found that a film whose trailer I had seen ages ago was now streaming. I actually enjoy watching films like The Kitchen after they've left cinemas. There's something much more intimate and much less pretentious about them, once they've made their way to my living room.

The Kitchen stars Laura Prepon (yes, that Laura Prepon, Donna from That 70s Show) as Jennifer, a young art manager who's turning 30. Her roommates and friends are throwing a birthday party for her, despite the fact that her boyfriend of two and a half years revealed his infidelity the night before. It's very much what you'd expect from a house-party film, with the saving grace of integrity for a few central characters. Jennifer and her sister Penny (a very funny Dreama Walker) have their own baggage to deal with, never mind a houseful of campy secondary characters with chaotic, if realistic, stereotypical subplots. 

The reason The Kitchen works at all is the perfect dynamic struck between Laura Prepon, Dreama Walker, Matt Bush, and Tate Ellington. Everyone else flows around them like a stream. I actually do buy Prepon and Walker as siblings, with Prepon sporting her naturally blonde locks, and Walker taking on the sassy role, whereas her performance as June on Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23 had her playing the doe-eyed country girl. But this is so much more fun! Matt Bush is Stan, the friend hopelessly in love with Jennifer; Tate Ellington (who also costarred on Don't Trust the B, as June's ex, Steven) is charming and adorable as roommate Kenny, whose heart belongs to Penny.

Even with the conceit that the entirety of the action takes place in the kitchen, the film stays fresh, moving the camera and making use of the various entrances and exits - and windows. Director Ishai Setton lets the action play out fast and loose, but keeps a close hold on the reins. 

We've all been to parties like Jennifer's, even if we haven't been at the center of the drama. When it's over, the lack of total resolution actually works - because that's how life is. And at less than 90 minutes, it doesn't last as long as those tedious, high-school, house-party films. You could do worse to have The Kitchen make an appearance in your life.