We’re approaching two weeks since FX’s The Bear landed on Disney+, meaning it’s safe to assume you’re fresh out of episodes (anyone rationing the last few has already lost the battle). The good news is there’s plenty of binge fodder with roughly the same DNA to enjoy between now and whenever season 2 drops. Beyond Anthony Bourdain’s entire catalogue of content and – to a certain extent – Netflix streaming queue fixture Shameless, which also features Jeremy Allen White. The closest thing we’ve found to a substitute so far? A criminally-underrated single-take film titled Boiling Point starring the one and only Stephen Graham.
Directed by Philip Barantini (The Responder), this feature-length delight is an expansion to the short film of the same name he produced with Graham back in 2019. Similar to The Bear, it’s a character-driven masterpiece that authentically captures the frenetic energy of working in hospitality; even more so than the series we’re comparing it to, in fact. Because Boiling Point doesn’t offer any full-circle resolutions or financial deus ex machinas. There’s only emotional violence and the cold reality that this life seldom affords any of us a happy ending. Oh, sorry… spoilers(?)
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The structure of Boiling Point alone is fascinating. While the principal focus is Stephen Graham as the substance-dependent Head Chef Andy Jones, who’s on the brink of teetering over the edge right from the jump, writer/director Philip Barantini and co-writer James Cummings make a point of unravelling each cast member’s richly-textured backstory; if only for a glancing moment.
Whether it’s young pastry chef Jamie (Stephen McMillan) battling against a private struggle, the ostensibly villainous maître de Beth (Alice Freetham), to the not-so-forthright celebrity chef slash evening guest Alastair Skye (Jason Flemyng). These endlessly fascinating vignettes tied together by a single, self-contained dinner service are where the film is strongest.
“In the case of writing it, we couldn’t write scenes so we just wrote it in beats and moments. And we would write real extensive stage directions and a lot of that was from the camera’s point of view as well,” Philip Barantini explained of Boiling Point’s organic feel to Script Magazine.
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“When we were writing dialogue, we didn’t write any specific dialogue. Initially, we just wrote bullet points as to what was needed to be said by the actors and what they need to get across at that moment. But then when it came to rehearsals we really dove into the specific dialogue and I wanted that to come directly from the actors.”
“I was workshopping with the actors and then James would be next to me with his laptop, tapping away and writing all the dialogue. Once we got the dialogue we sent the script out to everybody at the same time. I said to the actors, ‘I don’t want you to be tied down to the specific words’ because then it doesn’t feel as natural because you’re trying to recreate what you’ve already done, which is spontaneous.”
Boiling Point – which currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 99% – is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
