Boiling Point

Philip Barantini's Boiling Point opened in 2021 and was nominated for four BAFTAs in 2022, among them Best British Film and Best Actor (Stephen Graham). It was shot in a single unbroken 90-minute take in a working London restaurant kitchen on a single night, a technique Barantini, himself a former chef, would later stretch across whole episodes in the 2025 Netflix limited series Adolescence.

Andy (Graham, at the peak of his career) is head chef of a fashionable London restaurant on what should be its busiest night of the year. He is in the middle of a divorce, behind on his tax payments, recently diagnosed with a small but serious health problem, and being undermined by a former mentor (Jason Flemyng) who has just published a celebrity-chef cookbook and turned up for dinner with a critic in tow. Vinette Robinson, as the sous chef Carly, holds the kitchen brigade together beneath him.

The single take, a Steadicam route that runs without a break from front of house through the pass to the washing-up area and back, was rehearsed for weeks, and the version in the film was the third complete attempt that worked. Graham's commitment to the realities of professional kitchen work, down to cooking that holds up to scrutiny, made the film a reference point in the British hospitality industry. Boiling Point later became a four-part BBC One series in 2023, with Graham back in the role.