The aptly named short film Boiling Point (2019) focuses on and is almost entirely set in the hectic kitchen of a luxury restaurant that is on a knifes edge. The film opens with the head chef and manager arguing over the noise levels of the kitchen, with the manager claiming they could hear the kitchen from all the other side of the restaurant. This rift between chefs and the front of house workers is a theme that will continue throughout the rest of the film. Something else introduced in the opening shot of the film is the head chefs water bottle, the first time we see him on screen he is having a drink out of it and then throughout the film he remains almost inseparable from it, becoming frustrated and requests the whole kitchen to stop what they’re doing to announce its misplacement and inquires whether anyone has seen or misplaced it. It is only at the end of the film that we learn the true importance of it. The camera follows him into the kitchen, and the decibels begin to rise, the sound of pans frying, people shouting, and cutlery clanking.
Just like the food being prepared in the kitchen, the film is deliciously shot by cinematographer Matthew Lewis, who shot the film in one continuous take. Coincidently Stephen Graham would later star in the award-winning series Adolescence (2025), that was shot in the same fashion. However, I found that at times the camerawork in Adolescence broke my immersion, but I cannot say the same thing for Boiling Point. The continuous take filmed with a handheld camera lends itself to the fast paced and frantic environment of the kitchen and does not feel out of place at all.
The film gives of a sense of real authenticity of what it is like to work in a hectic kitchen environment, this is no coincidence as director Philip Barantini was a chef himself for twelve years.
He uses his experience brilliantly in his direction of this film, with the use of overlapping dialogue and the esoteric way the characters communicate with one another.
The workplace depicted here is incredibly toxic and at times I would argue, misogynistic. The head chef and his colleague refer to the female manager as a “bitch” and “stupid bitch.” Later on, the colleague remarks to a female wating member “nice plates, like your fucking face” and immediately after this two chefs gaze at her as she walks away. This behaviour comes across as not out of place in this kitchen, but tempers boil over when the female manager and the head chef argue over her friends who are dining at the restaurant after they request “something normal” which in this case is burgers rather than items off the bespoke menu like mallard in cherries and lamb.
Stephen Graham, brilliant as always
Stephen Grahams lead performance is outstanding; his character is perpetually on edge for the majority of the films runtime. In one scene, he berates a chef for using a bone knife instead of a fillet knife to fillet mackerel, whilst doing so he haphazardly waves a knife around when gesticulating his anger. Then, in another scene after an argument with a chef for asking for time off, he breaks down after revealing he has not seen his children for a while. The voice quivers and speech inflections convey his characters emotions in a way that only someone with an incredible dedication to the craft of acting could produce.
SPOILERS AHEAD
At the end of the film, it can be said the lead character has reached his “boiling point”, he retreats into the solitude of his office, we finally learn that the water bottle he has been clutching at for the entirety of the film is not as innocent as one would expect. It does not merely contain water for the simple purpose of hydration or to cleanse the pallet in-between taste testing. It contains Vodka. The mercilessness of the world he operates in has led him to this, not only a presumed addiction to alcohol, but also to drugs, as we see him snorting cocaine from his desk too. Afterwards he returns back to the kitchen, but unlike the beginning of the film where we follow him into the kitchen, the camera stops outside the door, our journey, and potentially his are now finished as we see him collapse onto the kitchen floor, violently shaking. It is only now from his concerned colleagues that we learn his name is Johnny, in fact his name is the final word said in the entire film, acting as a full stop to this marvellous short film.
