GIMME SHELTER (THE KITCHEN)

© Netflix & Film 4

Pele, Eric Cantona, Vinnie Jones and Ally McCoist have all had a go - some of them more successfully than others.

Now Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares' joint directorial debut 'The Kitchen' features the first acting appearance by Ian Wright.

The former Arsenal, Crystal Palace and England striker and soccer pundit plays a DJ called Lord Kitchener in a sci-fi film set in a dystopian London.

Kitchener broadcasts to the inhabitants of a slum known as The Kitchen populated by Londoners of mostly Afro-Carribbean origin.

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But while Wright's presence will undoubtedly surprise British and Irish audiences, his is a peripheral role in a movie about the importance of community in a society where the gap between the haves and the have nots is massive.

Kane Robinson plays Izi, an inhabitant of The Kitchen - a warren of illegally occupied buildings for those unable to afford apartments.

Looking like a cross between Hong Kong, Johannesburg and London, drones constantly fly over the heads of The Kitchen's occupants, monitoring what they are doing.

The area is regularly raided by heavily armoured police who beat and remove anyone standing in their way.

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Izi is a loner who works for a company, Life After Life which provides burial services for those who cannot afford funeral plots, turning the dead into plants for their loved ones.

It's there where he first encounters Jedaiah Bannerman's recently orphaned teenager Benji who starts to tag along with him after his mum's death.

An unlikely bond develops between the two, with Izi looking out for Benji.

However the teenager is also flirting with a biker gang headed by Hope Ikpoku Jr's Staples who like to fire rocks at the drones using a catapult at the top of one building.

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Staples' gang also robs vans transporting food.

Sensing the authorities are about to make a major move to clear out The Kitchen, Izi has been setting aside money to enable him to rent out a plush, hi-tech apartment in a complex known as Buena Vista.

He's on a waiting list and frequently gets reminders from a relentlessly upbeat AI voice that an apartment is there for him to claim.

Benji's arrival, however, poses a challenge for Izi's ability to afford his new upmarket dwelling, as he would have to change the rental terms fur the teen to join him and pay extra.

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Will Izi abandon Benji or will he place a greater value on the bond they have developed?

And can he protect the boy from getting sucked into Staples gang or falling into the hands of the authoritarian police force?

Working from a script Kaluuya fashioned with Joe Murtagh, Tavares and Kaluuya's movie is bursting at the seams with really good ideas.

Their Netflix and Film 4 movie feels like a fusion of 'Top Boy,' both 'Blade Runner' and 'Blade Runner 2049', 'Boyz N The Hood' and Romain Gavras' 'Athena'.

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The Lord Kitchener character is a nod to Samuel L Jackson's community radio DJ Mr Senior Love Daddy in Spike Lee's 'Do The Right Thing' and there are touches of Matthieu Kassovitz's 'La Haine' and Barry Jenkins' 'Moonlight' in there too.

There's also images that could have ripped from the news in recent years, with scenes of heavily armed police batoning inhabitants recalling how the Washington DC police were deployed to clear peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square prior to the infamous Donald Trump photo op outside St John's Church in the US capital.

These sequences also recall the clearing out of the ghetto in 'Schindler's List'. 

Kakuuya and Tavares' film, though, is a commendable attempt to build a drama around the widening poverty gap in society and London's housing crisis.

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The city portrayed in Kaluuya and Tavares' feature is teetering on the brink of street disorder and even insurrection.

While this dynamic runs throughout, at the story's heart is a tale about the importance of human connection in a digital world and community.

Izi has worked hard to plot his way out of The Kitchen and is bombarded with digital reminders that becoming his smart apartment is waiting for him.

The digital reminders and the AI voice that accompany him become increasingly dictatorial and passive aggressive.

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However he discovers all the digital gloss does not count for much if you have no-one in your life to share your experiences with.

While the film is bursting full of ideas like this and boasts some really striking imagery from cinematographer Wyatt Garfield, it has to be said Kaluuya and Tavares do struggle to contain all their themes in a cohesive narrative.

Promising narrative strands emerge and are abandoned.

As a result, 'The Kitchen,' while undoubtedly watchable, never quite feels the sum of its parts.

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While you're never bored watching the film, you can't help feel it needs a bit more narrative discipline.

Nevertheless it is to Tavares and Kaluuya's credit that the movie don't simply veer into poverty porn.

While the slum's conditions aren't great and the treat from the state is ominous, The Kitchen's inhabitants don't wallow in their misery and just get on with life.

Scenes of bustling market stalls, street food and rapping give the movie a vibrancy and avoid relentless misery.

© Netflix & Film 4

As for the cast, Robinson, Bannerman, Ikpoku Jr give decent accounts of themselves, with Teija Kabs as a young girl who befriends Benji makes a strong impression.

Wright also fits comfortably into proceedings in a film which is a diverting watch and makes a strong case for Kaluuya and Tavares to continue to be developed as filmmakers.

It's a decent debut.

And there's no reason why filmmaking talent like this should not be nurtured.

('The Kitchen' received its premier at the London Film Festival on October 15, 2023 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on January 19, 2024 after a limited cinema release a week before)