Why we picked it – A 92 minute film shot in one uninterrupted take? How can that possible work?

Synopsis – One night in a restaurant as chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham as a man on the edge) and his team battle their way through the busiest night of the year. He shows up late, gets through the night on alcohol and worse, and makes heedless snap decisions some of which come back to haunt him. The antipathy between the kitchen stalwarts and their front-of-house colleagues contrasts with a quieter moment between the motherly pastry chef her troubled junior. In the restaurant, guests include a boisterous gang of girls on a night out, a casually racist bore, a trio of Instagram idiots and a celebrity chef who shows up unannounced with his food critic companion.

The film – The drama is enhanced by it being played out before us in real time: one unbroken take, which hasn’t been digitally fudged, but is genuinely one continuous shot. This calls for roving camerawork which must have been plotted with precision and requires all the actors to remain on constant alert as if on stage. There are two high-wire acts going on: the spectacle of the film’s making, and the equally fraught one of food-as-theatre, in which just as much can go wrong in a split second and there isn’t a moment to lose. Stephen Graham’s bravura performance drives the film along; but it is the fully realised ensemble of characters around him that provides the bustle, friction and human comedy of what running a restaurant is like.

Director/Writer: Philip Barantini, Co-writer: James Cummins; Cinematography: Matthew Lewis, UK, 2021, 92 mins, 15

Links – imdb Telegraph review Guardian review