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Boiling Point

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Rent Boiling Point on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Apple TV.

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Gripping from start to finish, Boiling Point uses its bold formal approach to support a thrilling tightrope of a tale.

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Philip Barantini

Stephen Graham

Vinette Robinson

Alice Feetham

Hannah Walters

Malachi Kirby

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‘Boiling Point’ Review: The Worst Night in the Life of a Restaurant

Stephen Graham scowls and swears his way through a night of bad service in this single-shot drama set in London.

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By Glenn Kenny

“Drama,” Alfred Hitchcock once observed, “is life with the dull bits cut out.” This suggests a potential paradox when it comes to the so-called single-shot movie , one contrived to look as if it were recorded in one take, in real time. (Thanks to digital technology, it often isn’t.) If you aren’t cutting, how do you get rid of the dull bits?

“Boiling Point,” written and directed by Philip Barantini, tells the story of a rising London chef’s worst night — a night when his life is going to pieces as his restaurant is coming to ruin. We first see the chef, Andy Jones, on the phone, contending with one of the hoarier clichés of overworked men, that of having missed an important event in the development of one of his children.

Worse awaits inside the eatery. Bigoted diners. Loud social media influencers. A celebrity chef and silent partner of Andy’s who has brought along a restaurant critic. Disgruntled employees. Oh, and a nut allergy.

The ostensible point of the no-cutting ethos (and Hitchcock actually tried it , in “Rope,” with mixed results) is to heighten realism. But here the ever-mobile camera imposes a kind of determinism. When it trails a restaurant worker taking out the trash, the viewer knows they’re not being removed from the central action just to observe labor — there’s a plot point to be ticked.

The actual drama is a hero’s journey that unpeels itself as an antihero’s journey, to indifferent effect. Stephen Graham, who plays Jones, is a fine actor (and the rest of the cast, especially Vinette Robinson as a particularly put-upon sous chef, is excellent). But for too much of the movie he’s called upon to wear a scowl that makes him look like a Wahlberg who’s swallowed a bad oyster.

Boiling Point Rated R for language and plenty of it. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV , Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

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‘Boiling Point’ Review: Gordon Ramsay Has Nothing on the Kitchen Nightmares in This Heated One-Shot Drama

Superb performances by Stephen Graham and Vinette Robinson deepen director Philip Barantini's continuous whirl through one night in a hip East London restaurant.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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There was a time — way before the reality-TV chaos of “Top Chef,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and their ilk, and the ubiquitous trend for open restaurant kitchens — when most of us didn’t think all that much about the labor and drama behind the scenes of eating out. Now, we probably overcook the theater of fine dining in our imaginations: Not every perfectly done steak has been screamed over as part of the seasoning.

After a year when many of us have missed out on the restaurant experience, along comes “ Boiling Point ” to re-whet our appetite for its flash and sizzle. Presented as one continuous 90-minute take, Philip Barantini ‘s thoroughly absorbing film plunges the audience into one hectic Christmastime service at a high-end restaurant in East London, juggling a dizzy array of courses, characters and subplots that range from plausibly high-stakes to wildly contrived.

Even at its most far-fetched, however, “Boiling Point” retains an essential sense of integrity thanks to the honest, urgent presence of star Stephen Graham. Utterly compelling as an overburdened head chef whose mood swings and spiraling breakdowns never tip over into performative, Ramsay-style showboating, Graham evidently relishes biting into a rare big-screen lead worthy of his talent — though he’s had some practice, having previously headlined Barantini’s BIFA-nominated 2019 short “Boiling Point,” from which the feature has been satisfyingly expanded.

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Barantini, meanwhile, made his feature-length debut last year with “Villain,” a London gangster flick with more style and smarts than most of its genre peers. This more ambitious sophomore effort confirms the actor-turned-filmmaker as one to watch on the British scene, with a pacy mainstream sensibility underpinning his resourceful indie credentials. “Boiling Point” has its audience firmly in its grip from the second cinematographer Matthew Lewis’ snaky, agile camera picks up chef Andy Jones (Graham) on his way into work, fielding a call from his ex-wife over a parenting issue that is merely the first of a hundred problems circling in his addled, substance-aggravated brain.

Upon arriving at his industrial-chic modern British restaurant Jones & Sons — a real-life venue, in fact, in London’s buzzing Dalston district, lending an extra lick of authenticity to proceedings — Andy is immediately slammed with one crisis after another. An unannounced health inspection is in progress, ultimately knocking an embarrassing two points off the restaurant’s rating; neat supplies are short; key staff are late; celebrity chef Alistair Skye (Jason Flemyng), a former colleague of Andy’s with a shady agenda, has booked a table for that evening with a top critic in tow.

As service begins, Andy repeatedly butts heads with restaurant manager Beth (Alice Feetham), who cares more about Instagram clout than quality of cuisine. Trusty, no-nonsense sous-chef Carly (Vinette Robinson) is normally a stabilizing influence on her hot-headed partner, but she too is on the warpath. With her repeated pleas for a raise having fallen on deaf ears, she’s on the brink of accepting a job offer at a rival restaurant. Her career doubts and Andy’s domestic woes are the key sources of tension coursing through this already stressed kitchen, though as the camera wanders through the cavernous space, other staff members’ overheard stories spill into the mix: a waitress nurtures elusive acting ambitions, a pregnant dish-washer feels alone and unsupported, a junior kitchen boy tries to hide his self-harming scars.

At the top of the chain, Graham and the remarkable Robinson make for a fraught but intimately attuned double act. While he enters proceedings at full blast, she keeps her frustrations at a lower simmer, eventually blazing into an unfiltered tirade at her employers in the film’s most riveting episode. Behind it, one senses rage at multiple microaggressions against Black women in this elite industry: Elsewhere, across multiple scenes that ring chillingly true, a vulnerable young waitress (Lauryn Ajufo) is bullied by the bigoted patriarch of a particularly demanding party of four.

This staff-centered material is rich enough that one rather wishes Barantini and co-writer James A. Cummings had resisted overcrowding the pan with diner drama that feels less persuasive. Flemyng’s skeevy celebrity villain, in particular, feels more like a construct than a character, while one diner’s heavily stressed announcement of a nut allergy is a narrative time bomb that feels a little too obviously planted. “Boiling Point,” per its title, labors quite strenuously to bring its scattered plotting to a head, though that’s hardly necessary: The film’s everyday workplace drama is gripping enough as it is.

Even when the storytelling dips, however, Barantini’s well-executed one-take conceit carries us right through it. 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. It’s also a film to make you crave the noise and movement and social overlap of dinner out, however cruelly the environment treats some within it. There are images and exchanges here that won’t be easily forgotten next time you literally feed off a chef’s talent, agony and exhaustion, all served on the same china plate.

Reviewed at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Aug. 23, 2021. Running time: 94 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) An Ascendant Films Burton Fox Films production in co-production with Three Little Birds, Matriarch Prods., Alpine Films, White Hot Prods., Insight Media Fund, Urban Way, Bromantics. (World sales: Charades, Paris.) Producers: Bart Ruspoli, Hester Ruoff.
• Crew: Director: Philip Barantini. Screenplay: Barantini, James A. Cummings. Camera: Matthew Lewis. Editor: Alex Fountain.
• With: Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham, Jason Flemyng, Ray Panthaki, Malachi Kirby, Lourdes Faberes, Izuka Hoyle, Hannah Walters, Taz Skylar, Lauryn Ajufo.

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Boiling Point is the Most Brutal—and Best—Movie About Restaurants

It leaves you feeling and thinking and wondering, in a way you hadn’t before, what should I eat for dinner?

Like the bellies of knives, most movies have arcs, a gracious curve of circumstance, a rise, a fall and, perhaps, a rise again. Not Boiling Point , perhaps one of the most brutal—and best—restaurant films of the last 20 years. The film, starring Stephen Graham as English chef Andy Jones, is a straight stark line which starts dark and gets darker. It chronicles a single night in a mid-tier fine dining restaurant in London, near Christmas. Much has been made of the technically virtuosic method of shooting. The 90 minute film was shot in one very long take which renders unto the scenes something choreographic. The performances are uniformly brilliant but in a way that does not unduly shine. From the perspective of someone who eats out professionally, the highest achievement is that it forces you—me, us—to consider whether fine dining is worth the trouble and suffering at all.

We first meet Jones pre-service, heading into the restaurant. He’s already late, already on the phone apologizing to his ex-wife for missing his son’s swimming competition. We follow him as he enters to find a health inspector high on his own power; an understaffed, overworked kitchen crew; turbot that’s been tossed due to Jones’ lack of labelling the night before; and a clueless GM, the daughter of one of Jones’ partners, who has overbooked tables that evening. Andy’s a mess. Carly, his sous chef, is tired of covering for him. Another sous, Freeman, the rotisseur, is surly. Camille, a green girl from France, is working the entremetier and can’t understand Graham’s scouse (though to be honest, I have a hard time too) and another cook, Tony, is out of his element on the shucking station. In short, it’s all gone tits up before the first table sits down.

Boiling Point is like the Cookbook of Job. Some customers are racist fucks. The porter is more concerned with scoring drugs than helping out his pregnant colleague. A table of influencers arrive in full on Dave Portnoy mode, demanding off-the-menu steaks in exchange for something or other. A rival chef—and silent partner—arrives, with food critic in tow, to demand his money back. There’s a nut allergy on Table 13. It doesn’t end well.

It’s tempting to say that this is a dramatization, and certainly it is. But as countless memoirs, scandals, apologias, and lawsuits have made clear, although the recency and frequency of the tribulations are compressed for dramatic expediency, that kitchens can be infernal is indisputable. That the back of house frequently views customers as enemies is a dynamic well chronicled, perhaps most famously by Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential. But eavesdrop on any line cook and you’ll find the same antipathy. Food, as it must be in the brigade system, is viewed as a challenging logistical problem to be solved involving many moving parts that must arrive at the pass more or less simultaneously over and over again.

Because it is in the interest of both the diner and the chef to keep opaque the veil separating front and back of house—regardless of whether the kitchen is nominally open or not—these dynamics are rarely observed in situ . The diner is there for a good time; the chef is there to provide it. Any suffering, especially suffering caused by the dynamic in which both diner and chef play a part, gums up the machine with guilt. (On the other hand, it is in the interest of media outlets to expose the dysfunction of the kitchen and this has been much done. However, even this project feels at times more driven by the economics of journalism—views, revenue, prestige—than it does an underlying concern for those involved.) Movies like Boiling Point , though fictionalized, nevertheless point to truth. And once this truth is known, it’s difficult to unknow. Once one becomes aware that the pleasure of the plate is offset by the unhappiness of those who get the food there, how can one dine as one did before?

So what is the solution? Boiling Point captures a particular type of restaurant: a multi-partnered undercapitalized high-end bistro. Would the problems be diminished with more money, a kitchen renovation, higher prices, Resy, Tock, less fancy food, more seats, a fast-casual grab-and-go? Would the misery be lessened with a more robust social safety net, destigmatizing mental health care for men, automated purchasing systems, pooled tipping? As a diner, should I avoid these mid-tier one-man (or woman) fine dining shows and hew to the Bouluds, Colicchios, and Changs of the restaurant world whose companies are so vast there’s an HR department and clear reporting procedures? Or maybe one simply can’t eat food prepared as meticulously as one wishes without endangering, or enabling the endangerment, of others. In other words, stews and sandwiches for humanity.

Like I said, Boiling Point doesn’t have a happy ending. But you knew that; it’s called Boiling Point. It’s not as if anyone is going to turn down the heat at the last minute. And though it doesn’t leave you feeling good, it leaves you feeling and thinking and wondering, in a way I hadn’t considered as fully before, what should I eat for dinner .

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Boiling Point (I) (2021)

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Boiling Point

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Stephen Graham (Andy Jones) Vinette Robinson (Carly) Alice Feetham (Beth) Ray Panthaki (Freeman) Hannah Walters (Emily) Malachi Kirby (Tony) Izuka Hoyle (Camille) Taz Skylar (Billy) Lauryn Ajufo (Andrea) Jason Flemyng (Alastair Skye)

Philip Barantini

Enter the relentless pressure of a restaurant kitchen as a head chef wrangles his team on the busiest day of the year.

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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 ... Read More

Directed By : Philip Barantini

Written By : James Cummings

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Movie Review – Boiling Point (2021)

February 14, 2022 by Tom Beasley

Boiling Point , 2021.

Directed by Philip Barantini. Starring Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham, Jason Flemyng, Ray Panthaki, Lourdes Faberes, Lauryn Ajufo and Hannah Walters.

On one of the busiest nights of the year, a harried head chef and his team attempt to put together high-quality cuisine under immense pressure.

Stephen Graham is one of the best actors on the planet. Boiling Point begins with him walking through the streets of London into the fancy restaurant where he works as head chef, leaving a jittery voicemail message to his ex about their child. It’s a routine piece of scene-setting, but in the hands of Graham it becomes something special. In many ways, writer-director Philip Barantini’s film is the perfect showcase for a performer with his level of intensity – it’s a sharp, single-take thriller that thrives on its acute sense of stress.

Graham’s inventive chef Andy has been distracted at work recently, struggling with problems in his personal life, and as a result he has been missing out on orders and enhancing the workload on the likes of his right-hand woman Carly (Vinette Robinson) and fellow chef Freeman (Ray Panthaki). It’s one of the busiest nights of the year and restaurant manager Beth (Alice Feetham) is piling on the pressure, especially as telly chef Alastair Skye (Jason Flemyng) – Andy’s former colleague – is coming to eat that evening, with food critic Sara (Lourdes Faberes) along for the ride.

There’s an inherent sense of stress and intensity to a restaurant kitchen, which Barantini only amplifies by conveying all of the action in a single take. DP Matthew Lewis’s athletic camera glides around the restaurant, from the staff emptying the bins out back all the way through to the put-upon waiters dealing with racist micro-aggressions and rowdy influencers chancing their arm for a free, off-menu meal. One of the delights of Barantini and James Cummings’ script is in the way it highlights the ways in which every person in the restaurant has their own life and their own struggles, including a waitress’s high-profile audition and the manager’s tearful call to her father, stricken with imposter syndrome.

These myriad sub-plots, which add grace notes but never overwhelm the narrative, serve a functional purpose of course, providing downtime for the likes of Graham and Robinson, who are on screen for the lion’s share of the 90-minute long take. Barantini strikes an elegant balance, delivering these quieter moments without ever letting the tension of the broader narrative dissipate. Credit for this must also go to Aaron May and David Ridley’s music, which accents the expected ambience of a posh eaterie with flickers and flashes of the fraught turmoil going on behind the scenes.

But, of course, a movie of this style rests on the performances of its cast. Fortunately for Boiling Point , everyone brings their A-game, with Graham a typically dependable anchor point. It’s Robinson, though, who stands out the most as the woman picking up the pieces and holding the fort in the wake of Andy’s unravelling mental state. She’s a barely restrained ball of anxiety and frustration, perfectly controlled by Robinson to such an extent that, when she does raise her voice for a slightly stagey monologue, it feels entirely earned and is performed with the same precision as everything else. Flemyng also shines as a smarmy, arrogant foodie, clearly promoted to fame far exceeding his talent.

It’s certainly possible to pick holes in Boiling Point from a narrative point of view, with some of the drama telegraphed far too clearly in advance. However, Barantini conjures such an oppressive tone – it’s probably the most stressful film since Uncut Gems – that slightly obvious storytelling can be forgiven. You’re so busy running on this hamster wheel with the cast and the characters that it’s difficult to care too much if the sinews and tendons of the story are occasionally visible. After all, when you’re watching Stephen Graham at the peak of his considerable acting powers, you’re not thinking about much else.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.

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Review: One-take ‘Boiling Point’ goes behind the breakneck scenes of a restaurant

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

Ninety minutes, one take, all chaser: Welcome to “Boiling Point,” an exhilarating workplace drama that’s like jumping into a speeding sports car, one inexorably headed for a brick wall. But what a ride it is until it makes its final curve.

With a pushing, prowling, peeping camera that hurtles the viewer into you-are-there territory, director Philip Barantini, who co-wrote with James Cummings (based on their 2019 short-film collaboration), drops viewers into one intensely frantic, make-or-break night in the life of a trendy British restaurant. It’s a miracle the upscale cuisine here ever makes it to the tables.

At the center of the deftly choreographed mayhem, dazzlingly presented in a single continuous shot (kudos to cinematographer Matthew Lewis and his team), is head chef and proprietor Andy Jones (Stephen Graham), a mood-swinging whirling dervish with a list of problems that threaten to upend the newly separated dad at every turn. These include a pop-in from an eagle-eyed health inspector (Thomas Coombes); an unexpected visit from an agenda-driven celebrity TV chef (Jason Flemyng) along with a fearsome food critic (Lourdes Faberes); a talented sous chef on her last nerve (Vinette Robinson); a rudely misguided house manager (Alice Feetham); and a patron with a nut allergy that, well, you can guess how that goes. As for what’s in Andy’s appendage-like water bottle, suffice it to say it’s not Evian — and that’s not the least of what’s keeping him going.

The rest of the bistro staff — a hotheaded grill chef, a slacker dishwasher, an aspiring actress, an ebullient Scotsman, an overwhelmed French prep cook and many more — vividly add to the whirl and swirl. There are also entitled customers such as a trio of steak-hankering influencer bros and an insufferably condescending family man.

The loosely improvised film, set and shot at the stylish Jones & Sons, a popular bar/restaurant in East London’s lively Dalston district, may be anchored by Graham’s superbly kinetic performance but ultimately proves a team effort. The nimble, naturalistic performers are uniformly terrific. A special shoutout goes to Robinson, who navigates her character’s unbridled meltdown with alarming skill.

'Boiling Point'

Rated: R, for pervasive language and some drug use. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. Playing: Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall, Beverly Hills; available Nov. 23 on VOD

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Boiling point, common sense media reviewers.

Tense one-shot restaurant drama has strong language, drugs.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The importance of teamwork and communication are k

Andy is a man on the brink, suffering in his perso

Strong diversity among the cast in terms of gender

Characters shout at each other when under pressure

Some flirting between two members of staff working

Language includes variants of "f--k." Also "arse,"

The entire movie is set in a fancy London restaura

Set in a restaurant, alcohol is ordered by diners,

Parents need to know that Boiling Point is a superb but tense British drama set in a London restaurant and has near-constant strong language and some drug taking. Stephen Graham stars as Andy Jones, a head chef of an upmarket London restaurant, who is living with an alcohol and drug disorder. Struggling with…

Positive Messages

The importance of teamwork and communication are key themes, although the negative consequences of thereof are also shown.

Positive Role Models

Andy is a man on the brink, suffering in his personal life and seemingly living with alcohol and drug addictions. He shouts at and falls out with his kitchen staff but is also shown to care for them, helping and advising on occasion. Andy's sous-chef Carly covers for Andy when necessary and helps keep relations good in the kitchen. However, she loses her temper when the kitchen is criticized. Despite the various fallings out, the restaurant staff have a family-like feel. Some of the diners are obnoxious and in one instance show racist behavior.

Diverse Representations

Strong diversity among the cast in terms of gender, race, and sexuality. Wide range of regional accents with some characters being from outside of the U.K.. One character shows racist behavior toward a Black character. Addiction and self-harming are also depicted.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters shout at each other when under pressure. Scuffles between characters that are quickly broken up. A character is shown to have cuts on their arm suggesting they are self-harming. A diner has an allergic reaction -- they are given an adrenaline shot before being taken away in an ambulance. Character collapses after downing alcohol and snorting drugs.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some flirting between two members of staff working at the restaurant. Fleeting reference to sex. Character plans to propose to their partner. A waiter has their backside grabbed by a diner. Character briefly alludes to another having an affair.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes variants of "f--k." Also "arse," "s--t," "piss," "bitch," "pr--k," "idiot," and "shut up." The British slang term "wanking" is also used. Characters working in the restaurant's kitchen are told off for swearing too loudly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The entire movie is set in a fancy London restaurant. Characters use Apple iPhones, which are clearly identifiable. Three characters claim to be social media influencers and discuss using Instagram. Customer orders a $250 bottle of wine. Reference to wage increases. Character says they need money in order to pay a debt.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Set in a restaurant, alcohol is ordered by diners, including cocktails, wine, beer, and shots. Character seen smoking and buying pot. Character accuses another of always being hungover and smelling of alcohol. Character seen downing vodka -- they also hide it by pouring it into their water bottle -- and snorting drugs. Reference to going to rehab.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Boiling Point is a superb but tense British drama set in a London restaurant and has near-constant strong language and some drug taking. Stephen Graham stars as Andy Jones, a head chef of an upmarket London restaurant, who is living with an alcohol and drug disorder. Struggling with his personal life -- he is estranged from his wife and is constantly apologizing for letting down his young son -- Andy must gather himself to run the kitchen on the restaurant's busiest day of the year. Filmed in one continuous shot, the movie follows around the various restaurant staff as they deal with difficult diners -- including, in one instance, a racist customer -- and each other. Tempers are lost and voices are raised leading to much swearing including "bitch," "pr--k," and variants of "f--k." Various scuffles also break out, although they are quickly broken up. A customer has an allergic reaction and his rushed to hospital in an ambulance. Another character is seen with cuts on their forearm, with the suggestion being that they have been self-harming. Andy is seen downing vodka and pouring some into his water bottle. He also snorts drugs. Another character is shown buying pot. The cast is diverse in terms of gender, race, and sexuality with characters clearly coming from all different regions of the U.K. as well as other countries like France. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

Brilliant for older audiences.

What's the story.

BOILING POINT finds Andy Jones ( Stephen Graham ), head chef of a prestigious London restaurant, struggling with his personal life while trying to run his kitchen on one of the busiest days of the year. As tempers flare and pressures mount, will Andy and his team make it to closing time?

Is It Any Good?

Shot in one continuous take, this stress-inducing British drama is a superb piece of filmmaking. Anyone that has ever worked in a restaurant will recognize so much that is portrayed in Boiling Point from the over-whelming heat of the kitchen to the array of diners frequenting this London restaurant. As the camera moves in and around the restaurant, the viewer is given little crumbs of insight into the various characters, from the restaurant manager to the waiting staff to the customers. The camera is constantly on the move and it's to director and co-writer Philip Barantini's credit that we gain enough of an understanding about each of these characters despite some being given only a few minutes screen time. It's a testament to Barantini, who doesn't waste a second of the 92-minute runtime.

While the supporting cast are all superb, Boiling Point is led by a first-rate performance from Graham as the restaurant's head chef, Andy. From the opening scene, when Andy is apologizing to his estranged wife on his phone outside the restaurant, the pressure bubbling away below the surface is palpable. Every now and then, this pressure spills over, such as when Andy shouts at a new member of his kitchen staff for washing her hands in the wrong sink. But these outbursts feel nothing more than warning shots for what is to come as more and more lands on Andy's plate. A film that is experienced rather than enjoyed, you'll be wanting a long lie down by the closing credits.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the strong language in Boiling Point . Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

How were drinking and drug use portrayed? Were there consequences? Did it glamorize it?

The movie was shot in one continuous take. What effect did it have on the storytelling? Did it remind you of any other movies you've seen?

Have you or anyone you know worked in a restaurant? How did the portrayal on-screen compare to real life?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 19, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : November 23, 2021
• Cast : Stephen Graham , Vinette Robinson , Alice Feetham
• Director : Philip Barantini
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Saban Films
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Cooking and Baking
• Run time : 92 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : pervasive language and some drug use
• Last updated : October 8, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• TV Series |

Boiling Point Review

Streaming on: BBC iPlayer

Episodes viewed: 4 of 4

There’s a mere 11-minute continuous take at the start of  Boiling Point , the TV series spun off from the impressive 2021 film of the same name, echoing the breathlessly frenetic one-take achievement of the movie. But it would be misleading to say the TV drama then settles down in any way. Directors Philip Barantini (who made the original film) and Mounia Akl ensure there’s still a startlingly restless, intensely propulsive energy to all four episodes that make up this series, as their cameras prowl around the action in the restaurant kitchen, while fires break out, shouty arguments threaten to explode into physical confrontations, complex morsels of haute cuisine are created and newbie trainee Johnny (Stephen Odubola) learns how to make Hollandaise sauce.

It’s as effective and authentic a depiction of the hectic whirlwind of restaurant-kitchen life (and, intermittently, front-of-house activity) as similarly themed US masterpiece  The Bear , but  Boiling Point  has a distinctly social-realist tone, exploring the harsh realities of life on the edge in 21st-century Britain. By breaking free from the one-shot spectacle of the movie, the series has time to explore the day-to-day existence of its characters away from the restaurant, reminding us that colleagues often have no clue what’s going on in each other’s lives despite working in close contact with them for hours on end.

As the series touches on mental health issues like self-harm and alcoholism, and the continual challenge of just keeping your head above water in the current economic climate, it increasingly feels like part of the grand tradition of British socio-political TV writing from Alan Bleasdale ( Boys From The Blackstuff ) in the ’80s up to Sally Wainwright ( Happy Valley ) now. Meanwhile, the entire cast is uniformly outstanding, achieving a seemingly effortless naturalism to match the documentary-style feel of the whole exercise. If the series occasionally feels almost too stressful to enjoy, that’s a testament to just how realistic it is.

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Boiling Point review – TV that asks what if The Bear isn’t stressful enough?

This mesmerising four-part TV adaptation of the film has an excellent cast, a pressure-cooker atmosphere and a plot that will make you root for all the characters. But relaxing it is not

M ost chefs will attest to the fact that professional kitchens have a tendency to attract trouble and the troubled. Little wonder, then, that the stresses of this particular workplace are proving to be irresistible fuel for the small and big screen at the moment. Boiling Point has had several iterations, two of which predate the likes of Disney+ series The Bear and restaurant-set horror comedy movie The Menu : it was a short film, then it became a feature film , shot in one extremely tension-inducing take and released in 2022. Now, it has been turned into a four-part television series, which begins with a first episode that in effect asks, what if The Bear isn’t stressful enough?

You don’t need to have seen the film to pick this up, though it might help to fill in a bit of background and explain why Stephen Graham’s former head chef Andy isn’t on-screen very much. In the film – spoiler alert – we saw Andy’s decline over a single chaotic service, in which he lost staff, his reputation as a chef, and almost lost a customer, before promising to seek help for his alcoholism and then collapsing. The series picks up a few months later, with Carly (played by the fantastic Vinette Robinson) now head chef at another restaurant, a new venture called Point North, with most of the same team on board. It specialises in food from the north of England, to the scorn of the cartoonishly villainous investors who dine there and don’t know their scouse from their parmo.

Carly is finding that even without Andy and his problems, there are plenty of fires, symbolic and literal, to put out every night. Cleverly, it starts with the arrival of Johnny, who is mostly referred to as New Boy, a rookie on his first day, dropped into the maelstrom. He serves as our entry, or re-entry, into this world as he is introduced to the staff and the system. Carly asks him to whip up two litres of hollandaise; a quick search online for a recipe doesn’t help much. He is all fingers and thumbs, which is never ideal in a room full of hot fats and sharp things, and he can’t tell the difference between a beef jus and a chocolate sauce.

Sous chef Freeman (Ray Panthaki) is struggling to keep a lid on his Gordon Ramsay-esque temper, while Carly is distracted by frequent calls from her demanding mother, played by Cathy Tyson. (Why do all TV chefs have toxic relationships with their mothers?) Front of house, there are love affairs, more new staff, hungover waiters, and a general sense that most customers are either whiny little babies or obnoxious monsters. There is also a simmering tension between front of house and kitchen staff that will be familiar to anyone who knows what it’s like to work in a restaurant.

In episode one, the restaurant is rammed, the kitchen is working at a nice rhythm and everyone seems to think it is the best night for the VIP investors to see what they might put their money into. Naturally, that means it’s all about to go to the dogs. As the pressure builds, the camaraderie begins to curdle. Every night is an ordeal to endure, yet they keep coming back, or at least most of them do. Though Carly claims to run a calmer kitchen than Andy, the collective self-destructive streak remains strong.

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The series retains some of the shaky, rapid, one-shot spirit of the film, particularly in the first episode, though it does eventually settle down into a more traditional style. Even so, it piles stress upon stress, with a garnish of extra stress. Everyone who works at Point North has terrible personal issues to deal with, from poor mental health to poverty, alcoholism and family tensions; on top of that, as with most new restaurants, the budget is tight and only getting tighter. This is not a leisurely watch.

Yet it is mesmerising, particularly at the height of another service in which the worst can and inevitably does happen. You end up rooting for them all to get it together and triumph over every single bit of adversity that falls in their path, and there is a lot of adversity. After three episodes or so, some of the personal issues start to veer towards the melodramatic, and it is a shame that Andy is a smaller part of this story, because it means that when the magnificent Graham does appear on-screen, you realise just how good he is.

Still, this is an excellent cast as a whole, and it is remarkable how quickly Boiling Point drags you into its world and demands that you care about the people there. I wouldn’t watch it after a strong coffee, though.

• Stephen Graham

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‘For the first time people were truly afraid’: Antisemitism hits boiling point at Columbia U

Story updated April 22, 10:52 a.m. Antisemitic harassment, threats and intimidation hit a boiling point overnight at Columbia University, leading the White House on Sunday to condemn “physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community.” The White House statement came shortly after a prominent Jewish rabbi at the school declared the campus wasn’t safe for Jewish students, and urged them to leave until the school addresses “extreme” antisemitism. The reaction came amid a night of chaos and anarchy at the university and a few incidents of physical assault against Jewish students — and after a tumultuous week that resulted in over 100 arrests of anti-Israel activists. Among the most egregious antisemitic episodes: chants from protesters of “Go back to Poland”; signs with the Hamas symbol and the words “I’m with them”; chants calling for Hamas attacks on Tel Aviv; and protesters attempting to burn an Israel flag. “The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of the Orthodox Union-JLIC at Columbia and Barnard, texted Jewish students on Sunday. “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.” In response to Buechler’s recommendation, Columbia Hillel urged Jewish students to remain on campus. “We do not believe that Jewish students should leave Columbia,” the group wrote on X. “We do believe that the University and the City need to do more to ensure the safety of our students.” In a statement to JI, a Columbia spokesperson said, “Columbia students have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community. We are acting on concerns we are hearing from our Jewish students and are providing additional support and resources to ensure that our community remains safe.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates released a statement condemning the “physical intimidation” against Jewish students at Columbia University, and labeled them “blatantly antisemitic.” He said the anti-Israel protesters were “echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations.” “While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America.” Bates said. “And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable.” “We condemn these statements in the strongest terms,” Bates added. President Joe Biden, in his annual Passover greeting to the Jewish community, also alluded to the antisemitism at Columbia University. Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews, Biden said in his statement Sunday evening. After Saturday night’s widespread antisemitic harassment on campus, several Jewish Columbia students said they felt afraid for their safety for the first time. “[Saturday night] was an absolute breaking point and the first time people were truly afraid,” Eliana Goldin, a third-year political science major, told Jewish Insider. “My friends and I saw [non-Columbia students] sneak onto campus through a gap in the fence and we were verbally harassed, and some of my friends were physically assaulted. Public safety and NYPD did not help us. We were essentially stalked and followed as we tried to leave the escalating situation.” According to Goldin, the physical assaults included assailants slapping a Jewish student, another pouring water on several students and others attempting to grab Israeli flags and run away with them. “They yelled at us to go back to Poland, that we have no culture and chanted, ‘Strike strike Tel Aviv,” Goldin recalled. “My rabbi’s decision to tell everyone to stay away from campus was the right decision,” she said of Buechler’s statement, “because last night proved that the NYPD isn’t capable of protecting us… the environment here is openly hostile and possibly dangerous.” Goldin said she will return to campus after Passover because she feels “a strong responsibility as a Jewish leader on campus.” But she has at least one friend who plans to remain home for the rest of the year — and won’t come back in the fall if the situation continues. “Physical safety is at risk right now and until we can lock campus down from non-affiliates, we need NYPD on campus because no one was there for us and that was really scary,” Goldin said, noting that the escalation was a result of students helping non-affiliates enter campus by giving their IDs to help them swipe in or showing them the gap in the gate to enter. “[Students] definitely enable these more extreme protesters,” she said. “The rhetoric may be similar.” Noah Lederman, a freshman studying philosophy and pre-law, has signed an open letter with dozens of other students requesting to take Zoom classes as a safety precaution. “I’m afraid to come back to campus,” he told JI. “But I’m going to go back because I need to be there for my fellow Jewish students, who are like family to me now.” Lederman left campus on Sunday to spend Passover in Florida — a trip that was planned long before the unrest that unfolded last week. He told JI that several classmates are abiding by Buechler’s recommendation. “Within 20 minutes of [Buechler’s message], I’ve gotten six or seven texts from friends who are home for Pesach saying that they’ve pushed back their return flights to campus. Instead of coming back on Wednesday after yom tov, they’re tentatively waiting until Friday because they don’t feel comfortable.” In February, while wearing a shirt with an Israeli flag on it during a pro-Israel demonstration on campus, Lederman was shoved, pinned against a wall and, told by a pro-Palestinian protester to “keep fing running.” Nearly three months later, he said that antisemitism on campus “is 100 percent worse… because the university is unable, or unwilling, to protect its Jewish students.” Antisemitism has skyrocketed on Columbia’s campus since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israel-Hamas war. But according to Lederman, “things got really bad starting on Wednesday.” Last week, Lederman traveled with a group of students to Washington, D.C., to see Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, testify before a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on unchecked antisemitism at Columbia. “We returned Wednesday night to see the encampment, which was terrifying,” he said, referring to the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”— a demonstration in which protesters occupied the space on the universitys South Lawn for 30 hours. On Thursday, 108 people were arrested and issued summonses for trespass — including Rep. Ilhan Omar ’s (D-MN) daughter, Isra Hirsi. “There were flares lit up in the streets and we were offered escorts back by public safety to get back to our dorms,” Lederman said. “Then on Saturday there were protests on campus attempting to burn an Israeli flag.”  As for Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), three of the Columbia alumni serving in Congress, none responded to JI’s requests for comment on what was happening at their alma mater.  Nadler later posted on X that the anti-Semitic speech and protests taking place at and around Columbia has crossed a line and is creating an environment that is unsafe for Jewish students. He called on the school to do everything they can to protect students and ensure all feel safe on campus. Those who opted to weigh in — on both sides of the aisle — have largely condemned the chaotic scenes unfolding in New York and demanded Columbia take action to protect Jewish students.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement released Sunday evening, said: “College campuses must be places of learning and discussion. Every American has a right to protest, but when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line. Campuses must remain safe for all students.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement she is appalled at the virulent antisemitism being displayed on Columbia Universitys campus. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, whose district includes Columbia University, wrote on X : At the heart of every moment in history, there has been a tipping point, and at no other time in modern day society has the current climate of antisemitism been more prevalent and pronounced as it is today. In response to Rabbi Buechler’s urging of Jewish students to go home until the campus is safe again for them, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) argued that the onus was on the school administration to provide that protection. “Recommending Jewish students go home is not the answer. Expelling students who have engaged in this antisemitic behavior is,” Lawler wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “@Columbia and all universities across America must make it clear there will be zero tolerance for antisemitism or threats of any kind. Time to clean house!” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) wrote on X that, “The situation at Columbia Univ is unacceptable. While everyone has a 1st Amendment right to protest, students do not have a right to threaten violence and cause fear within the Jewish community on campus. @Columbia and @NYPDPC must ensure a safe environment for all students.” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the No. 3 House Republican who questioned Shafik during last week’s congressional hearing, called on Columbia to fire the current president and board in a statement. “While Columbia’s failed leadership spent hundreds of hours preparing for this week’s Congressional hearing, it clearly was an attempt to cover up for their abject failure to enforce their own campus rules and protect Jewish students on campus,” Stefanik said. “Over the past few months and especially the last 24 hours, Columbia’s leadership has clearly lost control of its campus putting Jewish students’ safety at risk. It is crystal clear that Columbia University – previously a beacon of academic excellence founded by Alexander Hamilton – needs new leadership.” “President Shafik must immediately resign,” Stefanik continued. “And the Columbia Board must appoint a President who will protect Jewish students and enforce school policies.” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) announced on Sunday that he would “be coming to Columbia University to walk with the Jewish students” in the wake of the protests. “If the University won’t protect them, Congress will!” Moskowitz wrote on X. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) used his condemnation to call on Congress to pass his legislation with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) combating antisemitism on college campuses. “I never imagined seeing this in America. @Columbia’s cowering to antisemitic hate has let terrorist sympathizers take over campus threaten Jewish students,” Scott wrote on X. “We must pass @SenatorTimScott my Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act pull all federal funds from Columbia NOW.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), wrote on the platform that, “Hamas Iran want Jews to feel unsafe everywhere. ‘Til now they couldnt reach U.S. Jews. Thanks to pro-Hamas campus rioters feckless administrators, threats to Jews only grow. Incitement is not free speech. College leaders must stop enabling terror keep Jewish students safe.” Even Israeli President Isaac Herzog weighed in on the exploding antisemitism at Columbia University and other elite college campuses. “Firm and strong action must be taken to prevent antisemitism on campus. American academia must wake up to the threat, a clear and present danger to academic freedom and to the very lives of Jews on campus,” Herzog said.

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Mysteries of the 2024 NFL Draft, grading past first-round QBs | Zero Blitz

Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab join forces to get their final thoughts on the 2024 NFL Draft in before it all kicks off on Thursday night. The duo start with the Denver Broncos' new uniforms and Fitz' strong thoughts on Arena football. There's a lot of hype around the quarterbacks in this year's draft, but Fitz and Frank provide a reality check by grading every first-round quarterback selected between 2018 and 2022, assigning only 3 As and 7 Fs (and having a very real conversation around Justin Herbert's grade). There are still a few big question marks in this year's draft that will have big ramifications, so Fitz and Frank go detective mode and discuss what the Washington Commanders will do at 2, the New England Patriots at 3, whether or not Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix will make it past Denver, the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders in the middle of the first round and if the Dallas Cowboys will make a move to address their biggest hole. The dynamic duo finish off the show by snake drafting the biggest draft busts of all time.

I'm over 50 and test anti-aging skin care for a living — here are the deals I'm scooping up this week

Save big on the best beauty products at Amazon and Walmart, including picks from CosRx, Olay, RoC and more.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone ejected after fan mouths off to home plate umpire

You don't see an ejection like this every day.

Tesla earnings week spotlights price cuts, Elon's 'balls to the wall' autonomy push

As Tesla gears up to report what will likely be unimpressive financial results for the first quarter on Tuesday, the company is making more moves to go “balls to the wall for autonomy,” as CEO Elon Musk put it last week in a post on X. Over the weekend, Tesla dropped the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) advanced driver-assistance system to $8,000, down from $12,000. The push to get FSD into more cars could be a bid to collect more data as Tesla works to boost the neural networks that will power fuller-scale autonomy.

The EU opens an investigation into TikTok Lite, citing addiction concerns

The EU has opened a second investigation into TikTok, regarding the addictive nature of TikTok Lite. The governing body could force a ban on the app while the investigation continues.

Pass or Fail: Broncos release 'Mile High Collection,' first new uniforms in over 25 years

The Broncos may have committed the greatest fashion faux pas there is: being boring.

Meta opens Quest OS to third parties, including ASUS and Lenovo

In a huge move for the mixed reality industry, Meta announced today that it's opening the Quest's operating system to third-party companies, allowing them to build headsets of their own.

Biden wants dishwashers to be more efficient. Republicans see a 'war on appliances.'

The government has been setting standards for how much energy and water household appliances use for decades, but the president’s critics say his latest rules go too far.