X
- 2021
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 32 m
- 2021
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 32 m
Summary On the busiest night of the year at one of the hottest restaurants in London, the charismatic, commanding head chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) balances along a knife's edge as multiple personal & professional crises threaten to destroy everything he's worked for. A surprise visit from a health & safety inspector sets the staff on edge a...
Directed By: Philip Barantini
Written By: James Cummings
- 2021
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 32 m
- 2021
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 32 m
Boiling Point
73
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary On the busiest night of the year at one of the hottest restaurants in London, the charismatic, commanding head chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) balances along a knife's edge as multiple personal & professional crises threaten to destroy everything he's worked for. A surprise visit from a health & safety inspector sets the staff on edge a...
Directed By: Philip Barantini
Written By: James Cummings
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
73
69% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
31% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
73
69% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
31% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The nimble, naturalistic performers are uniformly terrific.
The result is a spicy nerve-jangler served with a chargrilled side order of jet-black gallows humour – a divine comedy barrelling towards inevitable tragedy, played out in hell’s kitchen where someone is bound to get burned.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 User Ratings
7.1
79% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
15% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 User Ratings
7.1
79% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
15% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Loved the intensity of this film. Great performances all round. You believed the tension being felt in the kitchen and the exchanges between the staff felt so real.
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'Boiling Point' is fab. Stephen Graham is excellent throughout, he has shown his quality as an actor to me many times down the years in different productions and this is no different - great actor. Cool to see him reunite with Alice Feetham onscreen, those two are good in TV's 'Save Me'. The rest of the cast are strong, including Vinette Robinson and Jason Flemyng.
You can tell the dialogue is largely improvised, it feels a little unnatural in one or two moments but for the vast majority it comes across as real. The fact it was shot in one take also makes it all the more riveting. The film does a very fine job at showing the heat of the kitchen, literally. There are a few predictable bits (tables 7, 13), but also some scenes (Jamie) that are the opposite.
All in all, it's very well made and highly watchable. I'd recommend it, for sure.
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Formally, the film seldom takes its foot off the gas.
Boiling Point grips remorselessly while it’s spinning all these plates, and somehow ladles onto them a smorgasbord of great, frazzled acting from all concerned.
There’s a barreling momentum to the filmmaking that feels true to the cut and thrust of restaurant life, regardless of the script’s digressions.
To the credit of all concerned, however the one-take approach feels appropriate and organic, rather than gimmicky or stunt-like.
Graham, Robinson, and Barantini’s thematic concerns about how restaurants work are strong enough ingredients. It’s too bad they’ve been subjected to the one-note flavoring of a single-take movie.
'Boiling Point' is like if 'Birdman' and 'MasterChef' had a baby and 'Climax' raised it.
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excellent
[ ek-suh-luhnt ]
adjective
possessing outstanding quality or superior merit; remarkably good.
Report
Boiling Point is 1 hour and 30 minutes of pure, relentless stress. Head chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) arrives to his swanky London restaurant just before it’s due to open. He is desperately trying to keep a handle on both his personal life and work related stresses during one of the busiest nights of the year. Between the surprise visit from a health inspector, tensions between front of house and kitchen staff and some unruly customers (everyone hates influencers for a reason) Andy is reaching his limit.
Boiling Point is certainly a film true to its title. The look of a film shot entirely in one take adds to the feeling of mounting pressure and a sense of characters reaching their own limits and boiling over in the hot and fiery kitchen. The fluid camera motion as it drifts between different groups of people in the bustling restaurant definitely added to the sense of impending disaster. It looked very impressive and I can only imagine all the planning that went into this to ensure the entire film could be shot in one take. Not an easy way to make a film but the results speak for themselves. I know the single shot style of filming making annoys some people but in certain films it works very well and Boiling Point is a perfect example.
As someone who has never worked in a restaurant I can’t imagine surviving one night as I could barely manage the stress of the film. Stephen Graham was the perfect choice for this role surrounded by a great supporting cast. You feel the frantic chaos from everyone as if you’re sitting right there in the middle of it. A truly immersive experience, highly recommended.
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(Mauro Lanari)
Alcoholic, cocaine addict, separated from his wife, in debt, latecomer, sleepless, fresh from move: all the imaginable bad luck. Starting from these premises, things could only end badly for him regardless of the type of work. So the now worn-out location of the restaurant is completely superfluous. Authors like Ozu, Bresson, the Tati of "Playtime" ['67] would have made the breaking/collapse/boiling point more dramatic with the still, static, fixed camera to impotently shot the staging of impotence. Barantini makes the opposite choice: convulsive tale and uninterrupted steadicam for 86 minutes out of 92. Raffaele Meale writes that the director "seems to care more about the rhythm and spatiality to be managed than the psychologies of his characters". "Characters"? Unjustified accumulation of Fantozzian clichés. "There is a sense of dissatisfaction, and also emptiness. An exercise in style, not much more." Tzk: "a reflection on the one-shot film in today's cinema, after Hitchcock, Bazin, Metz" (Alessio Baronci). Wow.
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Production Company
Ascendant Films,
Burton Fox Films,
White Hot Productions,
Three Little Birds Pictures,
Alpine Films,
Bromantics,
Insight Media Fund,
Matriarch Productions,
The Electric Shadow Company,
Urban Way Productions
Release Date Nov 19, 2021
Duration 1 h 32 m
Rating R
Website
https://boilingpointfilm.co.uk/
Awards
British Independent Film Awards
• 4 Wins & 11 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 4 Nominations
Taormina International Film Festival
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
