bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Immigration, abortion and the eternal search for the American dream make up the ingredients of La Cocina, a new film that examines the United States’ most divisive issues through the microcosm of a New York restaurant kitchen.
The tense, claustrophobic drama stars Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as an American waitress at a bustling Times Square tourist trap staffed mainly by immigrants.
“It’s a film about contrasts – the contrast between back-of-house and front-of-house, between gringos and Mexicans, between the different hierarchies within a kitchen,” says Mexican director and writer Alonso Ruizpalacios.
“Kitchens are an easy way to understand the dynamics we experience on the streets.”


Its release coincides with a US presidential election in which both sides have vied for Latino votes, and migration has been a fiercely contested issue.
For Ruizpalacios, restaurant kitchens are “melting pot of cultures” that naturally attract people of all nationalities, making them perfect settings for “highlighting the frictions between cultures”.
“They are also places where the pressure is very, very high … sometimes very painful things come out, and sometimes occasionally hopeful ones too,” he says.
Although based on a 1957 play of the same name, La Cocina focuses more directly on immigrants’ experiences, and how the dream of progress through hard work can prove an illusion.
Ruizpalacios based his script on his own experiences working as a dishwasher in a similarly giant, commercial restaurant in London, during his student years.

In La Cocina, undocumented Mexican immigrant and idealistic dreamer Pedro (Raul Briones) falls in love with Mara’s waitress Julia, who only partly reciprocates his passion.
While he yearns for an idyllic future with her, Julia is preoccupied with a more practical dilemma – whether to abort the baby she is expecting.
“I wanted to show the people behind the closed doors of the kitchens,” the director says.
“Behind those doors there are people who have families, who have dreams, and who work very hard and for very little money.”


His immigrants bear their own flaws and even dark sides.
“Often in these types of films, in order to make the American observe his own racism and prejudices, we simplify the other and turn him into a saint – I was not interested in that,” Ruizpalacios says.
“They are also complex people, with contradictions.”

While the film’s themes resonate in the context of the imminent election, Ruizpalacios expressed hope that it can provide broader insight into the enduring fabric of US society.
He shot the film in black-and-white, to avoid tying it to any particular era.
“There is something timeless in this story,” he says, referring to the original 1957 play. “It is still relevant 70 years later.”


Vandal smashes Ebenezer Scrooge’s tombstone used in ‘A Christmas Carol’ film

As September 5 movie opens, journalist recollects broadcast of 1972 Olympics terror attack

Anne Hathaway reportedly to lead Verity, latest Colleen Hoover movie adaptation

5 of the best things to do in Hong Kong this weekend, November 22-24

American cinema

La Cocina movie director on story of immigrant dreams set in New York restaurant kitchen

Rooney Mara as Julia and Raul Briones as Pedro in a still from La Cocina, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios. Photo: Instagram/@hanway_films

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios. Immigration, abortion and the eternal search for the American dream make up the ingredients of his new film, La Cocina. Photo: AFP

La Cocina producer Ramiro Ruiz, stars of the film Anna Diaz, Raul Briones and Rooney Mara and its director, Alonso Ruizpalacios, at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival where the film was presented. Photo: AFP

Jimmy O. Yang gets personal in his first lead role as Interior Chinatown’s Willis Wu

Jimmy O. Yang as Willis Wu, his first lead role, in a still from Hulu series Interior Chinatown. Photo: Hulu

Jimmy O. Yang recalls getting a reminder of prevailing attitudes towards Asian-Americans when he arrived at a Hollywood studio to film Interior Chinatown and the guard refused to let him in. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images/TNS

Jimmy O. Yang (left) with co-star Ronny Chieng in a still from Interior Chinatown. Photo: Hulu

(From left) Interior Chinatown stars Ronny Chieng, Jimmy O. Yang and Chloe Bennet, and executive producer Charles Yu, author of the book on which the Hulu series is based, on the red carpet at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Photo: Instagram/@shtanlee

Jimmy O. Yang and Alyss When in a scene from the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Photo: ABC

Jimmy O. Yang and T.J. Miller in a still from HBO comedy series Silicon Valley. Photo: HBO

Jimmy O. Yang as Bernard Tai is a still from Crazy Rich Asians. Photo: Warner Bros

Jimmy O. Yang as Willis Wu and Chloe Bennet as Detective Lana Lee in a still from Interior Chinatown. Photo: Instagram/@chloescereal

Why Anora, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning stripper drama, doesn’t fall into male gaze

Mark Edelstein and Mikey Madison in a still from Anora.

Mark Edelstein as oligarch’s son Ivan (centre, left) and Mikey Madison as Anora in a still from Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning film Anora.

Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or for Anora at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

Mark Edelstein as wealthy oligarch’s son Ivan (left) and Mikey Madison as street-smart girl Anora in a still from Anora.

From left: Yura Borisov as henchman Igor, Mark Edelstein as Ivan, Karren Karagulian as Orthodox priest Toros, and Mikey Madison as Anora in a still from Anora.

Director Sean Baker (standing, in black) on the set of Anora.

Madison in a still from Anora.

AI de-ageing in film Here amazing, Tom Hanks says. His character goes from teen to elderly

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in a scene from Here. Filmmakers teamed up with an AI studio to de-age the film’s stars almost in real time, a feat Hanks calls “amazing”. Photo: Sony Pictures via AP

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in a scene from Here. Hanks has praised the use of artificial intelligence to de-age them. Photo: Sony Pictures via AP

Hanks and Wright in a scene from Here. The film is shot entirely with one static camera. Photo: Sony Pictures via AP

Robert Zemeckis with Hanks and Wright on the set of Here, which is based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Photo: Sony Pictures via AP

Nick Park (left) and Merlin Crossingham attend the premiere of Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Photo: AFP

What killed Bruce Lee? 4 leading theories medical and martial arts experts proposed after his shock death 50 years ago in July, 1973

Bruce Lee on the set of “The Big Boss”. Lee died two years after the movie’s 1971 release, and in the years since, competing theories have been posited as to what exactly killed the martial arts star.  Photo: Yau Leung

Bruce Lee in a still from “Fist of Fury” (1972).

Lee with Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. The two spent time together soon before Lee’s death.

Bruce Lee in a still from “Enter the Dragon” (1973). Photo: TNS

 Lee circa 1970. He had “chronic fluid intake” by virtue of his alcohol- and juice-based diet. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

‘It’s a film about contrasts … between gringos and Mexicans,’ says director of movie about immigration, abortion and the American dream


‘It’s a film about contrasts … between gringos and Mexicans,’ says director of movie about immigration, abortion and the American dream.


Cinema

US immigration