Boiling Point

[Sebastian Cobb]

Anyone else seen this?

Single take film that's a tense look behind the scenes of a restaurant kitchen, runs for an hour and a half.


Stephen Graham is the head chef out of his depth, Vinette Robinson is his second in command who runs the show.

It's good I reckon. I was a potwash for a bit and it seems pretty accurate.

[peanutbutter]

Single take film

Does the gimmick justify itself? Feel like that kind of thing is more of a distraction than anything else usually

[Shaky]

That's a terrible title - sounds like a mid-90's Seagal movie. I'd have gone with "Hot Cakes" or "Bad Buns".

[Sebastian Cobb]

Does the gimmick justify itself? Feel like that kind of thing is more of a distraction than anything else usually

I thought it worked quite well as the camera continually following the drama around created a sense of tenseness.

But then I also quite liked Victoria which did the same thing.

[Ja'moke]

I watched this a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. Very much a "slice of life" type film but done really well and nicely tense despite the relatively low stakes (by movie terms). Great performances too; a lot of the same cast from Save Me in it.

[bgmnts]

Pretty sure Boiling Point was a Ramsay doc in the early 00s.

But yeah sounds like a shit Seagal film, or just a Seagal film.

[Dave The Triffids]

Really, really enjoyed this.  Good ratcheting of tension and some fantastic performances.

[lb99]

I haven't seen the full length film, but watched the short-film last year and really enjoyed it. I think I bought it on Amazon Prime.

[Shit Good Nose]

Takeshi Kitano exits thread disappointed.

[Fr.Bigley]

It's not as realistic as the 1990s series "Chef!", starring Leonard Henry.

[wooders1978]

I loved it, great performances from all the cast

My only complaint:

Spoiler alert

They telegraphed the shit out of the nut allergy and actually I don't think it really needed it at all

[close]

[Small Man Big Horse]

Pretty sure Boiling Point was a Ramsay doc in the early 00s.

But yeah sounds like a shit Seagal film, or just a Seagal film.

Or a shit Wesley Snipes film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106455/

One of my housemates saw this yesterday and praised it highly, and it's now available on your torrent sites so I'll be giving it a shot soon.

[Pink Gregory]

It's also a weird jank open world FPS PC game from the mid 2000s

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

You forget about the one-take/real-time 'gimmick' after the first few minutes (while being subconsciously aware of it throughout, obviously), as it serves the story and character developments. It's not a self-conscious formal exercise, it's an effective way of plunging the viewer into the unrelenting stress of this situation.

As previously mentioned, the stakes are fairly low, but that works in its favour. You just want these people to get through their shift. If Stephen Graham suddenly revealed that he had a ticking time bomb in his pants, that wouldn't be as dramatic as watching him just trying to keep things together while dealing with

Spoiler alert

an incompetent (yet sympathetic) manager, a clearly competent staff, a bunch of arsehole customers, Gordon Ramsay, and his own personal problems.

[close]

A very good film. It lingers.

PS:

Spoiler alert

I agree that the nut allergy business was heavily signposted, but that didn't ruin the overall effect. I also thought the scene in which Gammon Dad immediately took against the black waitress (moments after joshing with the blonde waitress) was a subtly authentic depiction of how those 'casually' racist fuckwits operate.

[close]

[the science eel]

Good to see Stephen Graham getting some work after being ignored for so long

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

He's a brilliant actor. So what if he's in loads of things? Stephen Graham being all intense and fucked up while struggling to keep himself together is always worth watching.

[Inspector Norse]

Watched this last night and generally liked it, though it was too flawed to agree with some of the praise above.
I thought that it was a fantastic use of the single take, not gimmicky at all, as it really let us feel the pace and stress of life behind the scenes at a top restaurant, really got us into the characters' experiences and feelings, and made a compelling scenario out of something most of us probably never think about as we, as customers, are on the other side of it.
The characters of the staff were all well-drawn and the acting uniformly strong; where it fell down, for me, was in the various events and plot points it used to add drama. The allergic reaction was, as others have mentioned, too heavily foreshadowed and the bullying gammon dad wasn't subtle at all, I thought, but cartoonish and unrealistic. Add to that the frenemy celeb chef turning up WITH critic chum in tow to boot and, well, there's so many possible jokes about overegged puddings or too many cooks there, aren't there? I think they could have shown the pressure and the constant fight to stay on top of details and demands without trying to stuff so many problems into the story; I also found the ending too manipulative and contrived, see the spoiler below.
As long as I could suspend my disbelief and frustration at the overcooked plot, though, it was a really tense and fascinating film.

On the ending -

Spoiler alert

yes, the water bottle being full of vodka was a good if perhaps also overly foreshadowed twist, but Graham having the emotional phone conversation, banging on about loving his son, shoving coke and vodka into himself, promising to go to rehab, performatively chucking his drugs and booze and THEN dying (or at least collapsing, it wasn't made 100% clear) of an OD/stress heart attack/combination of the two was just too much: would have been better had the same scene played out with him instead summoning more false courage and the camera watching him from behind pushing the doors open, marching back out into the restaurant to keep on struggling, cut to credits.

[close]

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

We're in broad agreement there,

Spoiler alert

particularly with regards to the slightly on the nose ending

[close]

, but I don't think

Spoiler alert

Gammon Dad was unsubtle at all. In just one scene he encapsulated alpha male bigotry. Even before he instantly took against the black waitress, he was dictating the rules of the meal to his family. An intimidating passive-aggressive cunt of a man, an overbearing patriarch. I thought he was very well-observed.

[close]

[ProvanFan]

I'll have the turbot, please.

[Sebastian Cobb]

On the ending -

Spoiler alert

yes, the water bottle being full of vodka was a good if perhaps also overly foreshadowed twist, but Graham having the emotional phone conversation, banging on about loving his son, shoving coke and vodka into himself, promising to go to rehab, performatively chucking his drugs and booze and THEN dying (or at least collapsing, it wasn't made 100% clear) of an OD/stress heart attack/combination of the two was just too much: would have been better had the same scene played out with him instead summoning more false courage and the camera watching him from behind pushing the doors open, marching back out into the restaurant to keep on struggling, cut to credits.

[close]

Spoiler alert

It doesn't really matter but I didn't think his collapse was a life-threatening medical emergency, I thought he was having a bit of a breakdown.

[close]

[sevendaughters]

Saw this this afternoon. Well handled on the whole, several intersecting issues delicately balanced, just thought the ending was a total letdown. Deserved better.

[dead-ced-dead]

I really liked this, but for as good as Stephen Graham was, I found the scenes with his sous chef played by Vinette Robinson to be the most compelling. She was my MVP and I'm glad she won the BIFA for Best Supporting Actress. It's just a shame she missed on the BAFTA.

[Emma Raducanu]

I couldn't really buy into the idea that Stephen Graham's character was a brilliant chef. Firstly, the food they were plating looked shit and secondly he worked like a dosser. Didn't come close to resembling a flawed genius or someone just having a hard time.

Apart from that, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Racist gammon man made my blood boil, so too the influencers. Must be a nightmare dealing with these people and I thought they were quite well realised.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The janitor who's totally useless in the kitchen, arriving late and then doing nothing apart from watching something on his phone

Spoiler alert

is obviously the coke provider for Graham, given how little he is worried when he's caught being idle or for a big mistake, and how much Graham vouches for him.

[close]

[Blue Jam]

This is on Netflix now. Just watched it and thought it was great. And I assumed the name was definitely a reference to the Gordon Ramsay documentary, as was the animosity with his former boss.

[Ja'moke]

Just a heads up that anyone that enjoyed this would probably like the recent FX series The Bear, which has a very similar vibe. Genius chef moves back home to help run his dead brother's restaurant in Chicago.

[Chollis]

This was good, I liked it. Always good to see Stephen doing his Stephen Graham thing. Don't see the single-take as a gimmick, a highly stressful resraurant kitchen is surely a good place to use it. They crammed in some short but sweet moments with wrist boy and the manager lady. Agreed the nut stuff was too heavy handed, but the confrontation in the back room with all the staff was spot on, very tense.