Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
The mobster husbands of three 1978 Hell's Kitchen housewives are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia's matters into their own hands — proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition… literally.
The Kitchen had an intriguing premise — three mob wives taking over Hell's Kitchen in the late 70s — but squandered it with an uneven, rushed script that fails to develop its characters meaningfully or build satisfying tension. The acting from Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss is competent and occasionally strong, particularly Moss, but the material lets them down. The 1978 Hell's Kitchen period setting is rendered adequately but without particular visual distinction. The concept isn't especially novel, echoing better crime dramas and female-empowerment narratives without finding its own distinct voice, and the film feels like a generic DC Vertigo adaptation that loses the source's edge. The ending tries for a dark, definitive note but arrives without sufficient emotional groundwork, feeling abrupt rather than earned.