Earlier than demonstrating himself to be certainly one of Mexico’s most authentic and thrilling new filmmaking skills, Alonso Ruizpalacios washed dishes in a bustling big-city kitchen. That have informs each second of the “Museo” director’s fourth function, “La Cocina,” an exhilarating in-spirit adaptation of Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play “The Kitchen,” transposed from midcentury London to modern-day New York.

A chaotic symphony of almost two dozen characters, this black-and-white indie confection (garnished with sparing touches of shade) mixes biting social critique with stylistic bravura. The setting is within the guts of a high-volume midtown Manhattan restaurant referred to as The Grill — a busy strain cooker the place private {and professional} issues come to a boil.

The meals seems to be edible at finest, and rather a lot much less attractive after we’ve witnessed the commotion that goes into making ready it. In Ruizpalacios’ model, virtually your complete workers — not Rooney Mara’s pregnant waitress, however the ones touching the meals, no less than — are immigrants caught between the proverbial frying pan (sweating into their orders amid the noon rush) and the hearth (of dropping their work standing, which exposes them to the danger of deportation).

Wesker would have permitted of Ruizpalacios’ modifications. Because the left-leaning playwright defined on the time: “The world may need been a stage for Shakespeare however to me it’s a kitchen, the place individuals come and go and can’t keep lengthy sufficient to grasp one another, and friendships, loves and enmities are forgotten as shortly as they’re made.”

The Mexican writer-director shares Wesker’s solidarity-minded admiration for the troopers of meals service, taking an immersive strategy to their work. “La Cocina” thrusts us into the trenches, whereas updating the problems that threaten to derail one other chaotic day within the operation — from the waitress weighing whether or not to abort to an investigation into roughly $800 lacking from the until (nearly precisely the price of the process).

Ruizpalacios truly opens the movie removed from forty ninth Road, the place rats eat the leftovers of yesterday’s slop. There’s a dreamy, barely amateurish high quality to the slow-motion prologue, which follows Estela (Anna Diaz), a younger Mexican immigrant with expertise in a Michelin-starred restaurant, as she makes the pilgrimage to this glamorously positioned however in any other case unremarkable institution to interview for a job.

It’s a logical manner in — not not like the “Mad Males” pilot, which adopted inexperienced Peggy into a frightening office surroundings, letting audiences study the ropes alongside the brand new lady. Right here, Estela serves as our information, then strikes to the background. She is aware of to drop the title of household good friend Pedro (Raúl Briones), who preps poultry dishes all day at The Grill. That technique will get her the job, even when Pedro himself is on skinny ice, three strikes away from being fired.

He reveals up late for work and shortly turns into the first suspect within the register theft — an invention that serves to exposing prejudices at play within the office. Ruizpalacios toys with audiences’ assumptions as properly (we will’t assist however marvel who stole the cash), selectively revealing sure key particulars — like the truth that Pedro and Mara’s character, Julia, are a pair. Come to seek out, she’s carrying his youngster.

At 139 minutes, the film takes its time, steadily constructing towards the lunchtime surge. Within the quiet earlier than the storm, the lovers stress about non-work issues. Utilizing a particular ingredient Estela introduced from Mexico, Pedro whips up a sandwich as a declaration of his love for Julia. She repays him with a quickie within the walk-in fridge.

Although Briones has the showier half, Julia asserts a disproportionate energy over Pedro: It’s finally her determination whether or not to maintain the infant, and tied up in that selection is the destiny of their relationship and his personal visa standing. To the extent that this kitchen serves as a microcosm by way of which to grasp the world, “La Cocina” focuses viewers’ consideration on simply how a lot society exploits immigrant labor.

Julia and the opposite white ladies work together with the shoppers, however behind the swinging doorways, Americans are within the minority. Ruizpalacios layers all of the completely different languages in a single exhilarating montage, the place we see the micro-dynamics that go into making this operation run. “Converse English!” bellows the aggro man on the steak station, brandishing his knives like he’s able to homicide somebody.

Whereas the impatient diners (hardly ever seen) demand service, the road cooks shift into battle mode. The strain builds because the incoming orders speed up, chattering away on a receipt printer Pedro involves view as a private enemy … till he snaps, triggered by a slur from one of many waitresses. We have been warned, however who might have foreseen such an epic meltdown? Think about “Community” anchor Howard Beale imploding within the bowels of a New York vacationer lure. It’s equal elements hilarious and horrible: an over-the-top catharsis for anybody who ever punched the clock in a kitchen.

The best way Ruizpalacios handles his ensemble — almost 20 workers, starting from tough-love supervisor Rashid (Oded Fehr) to the lowliest busboy — mirrors the power of a boisterous, late-career Altman film, even when DP Juan Pablo Ramírez’s crisp monochrome cinematography suggests one thing scrappier (extra consistent with the helmer’s indie debut, “Güeros”). Overlaying so many characters requires cautious choreography, particularly because the kitchen spirals uncontrolled through the lunchtime surge.

At one level, a damaged soda machine floods the premises, such that line cooks and servers alike are virtually swimming to their stations. “La Cocina” confronts the craziness head-on as this industrial kitchen begins to really feel just like the galley of a type of Roman slave ships from “Ben-Hur.” If america is a melting pot, that is the furnace.