75
Metascore
6 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossThe PlaylistRafaela Sales RossBriones and Mara are perfect dance partners in this waltz between reality and possibility, stark opposites and doomed lovers united by a hope they know to be foolish.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyEven if the film ultimately strays too far into virtuosic theatricality, betraying its origins, La Cocina is a gripping reflection on the dehumanizing grind of labor and the ways that its soul-crushing routines stifle hope. Even if he takes too long wrapping up an overwrought climactic crescendo, this is a compelling vision of the immigrant experience as a hellish limbo in which even the seeming ballast of community, brotherhood and love can be illusory.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeA chaotic symphony of nearly two dozen characters, this black-and-white indie confection (garnished with sparing touches of color) mixes biting social critique with stylistic bravura.
- 75The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorRuizpalacios’ film has style to burn but little interest in subtlety, and even the most high-grade hammers can lose their sheen after 139 minutes of hammering.
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichWhile La Cocina can’t always shake the polemical stiffness of its source material or the political chokehold of its modernized setting, the film’s agit-prop expressionism allows it to push beyond the boundaries of other stories like it.
- 50Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallWe never shake off the feeling we’re watching a filmed play, one whose dramatic crescendos and lulls are relentlessly stagey and stylised.