One evening inside a London restaurant on the busiest night of the year. Head Chef Andy (Stephen Graham) must marshal his team through the pressure cooker of the evening. Shot in a single take this 92 minute film matches its theme to its style.

Outside of watching Boiling Point with time to reflect the plot is not filled with any grandiose or ground breaking ideas. But in the moment, watching the unrelenting nature of the way it is presented to you tied with the naturalistic performances of the actors involved it feels like a roller coaster ride that you do not want to get off.

The plot involves various stresses and pressures that each individual in the kitchen and front of house staff are facing. The combined result of which place great strain overall on the successful running of the restaurant. Andy has some personal issues at home that are resulting in him failing to maintain cleaning records and keeping up with orders. His senior chefs Carly (Vinette Robinson) and Freeman (Ray Panthaki) are under paid, over worked and to varying extents fed up of covering for him. The house manager Beth (Alice Feetham) is out of her depth in a job given to her by her investor father. Whilst Andy’s former mentor and celebrity chef Alastair (Jason Flemyng) has decided to turn up with a food critic. Add in some difficult and demanding customers and the whole enterprise is running on a knife edge.

The film which was written by James Cummings and Philip Barantini and directed by Barantini is a feature length version of the pair’s short film of the same name made in 2019 which also starred Graham and Feetham. Shot in March 2020 they took four attempts over two evenings to capture what you see on screen with the third take the end product. And honestly it is this bravura method of filming that escalates the film to the next level in terms of enjoyment for the viewer. The intensity of the single shot and no time to breathe completely puts you in the pressure cooker situation that the staff are facing. Whilst the skill of the actors to totally immerse themselves into their characters and deliver great performances is awe inspiring.

Boiling Point proves that sometimes the style makes the content.