Tiffany Haddish and Melissa McCarthy aren’t typically names you’d associate with a dark crime drama. The comediennes are best known for movies like Girls Trip and Bridesmaids, but we should know better than to question their limitations. Haddish was a breakout star a few years ago, and McCarthy has been nominated for two Academy Awards. If anyone can make the leap from laugh-out-loud to put-’em-up, it’s these two.
That’s why this trailer for their new film, The Kitchen, is so exciting. The two join veteran drama actress Elisabeth Moss to form a trio of mob wives in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, who take over an organized crime operation after their husbands are arrested by the FBI.
The premise sounds an awful lot like last year’s crime drama Widows, starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, and Michelle Rodriguez. But the similarities mostly end there. The Kitchen is actually based on a DC graphic novel of the same name by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. The story takes place in the 1970s, hence all of those colorful sweaters, feathered hairdos, and vintage cars.
McCarthy plays Kathy Brennan, a mother of two who gets swept up in the world of crime, with Haddish as outsider Ruby O’Carroll and Moss as Claire Walsh, a once-timid wife who falls in love with her new life of crime. The cast also includes Domhnall Gleeson as a neighborhood hitman who falls for Claire, with Bill Camp, Common, and Brian d’Arcy James in supporting roles. Another exciting thing: The film is written and directed by a woman, Andrea Berloff.
We’re loving this modern trend of casting women against type in crime drama roles. After Widows and Ocean’s 8, films like The Kitchen are officially a trend. And a trend we’re happy to sign off on. This thing looks like a lot of fun.
The Kitchen hits theaters on August 9.
Images: Warner Bros. Pictures
