From Bonnie Parker to Sharon Stone’s enigmatic portrayal of Ginger in Casino, our fascination with mob women, their crimes and (arguably) their complicity, is fuelled by their portrayal in both film and popular culture.

Molls, mothers, trophy wives, lounge singers; in the male-dominated world of mafia movies, women are often depicted as token additions. Until now.

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss, The Kitchen takes us back to ‘70s New York, and the pawn shops and dive bars between Eighth Avenue and the Hudson River, collectively known as Hell’s Kitchen.

Infamous as the Irish Mafia’s stomping ground, mob wives Kathy (McCarthy), Ruby (Haddish) and Claire (Moss) find themselves thrust into a difficult situation when their husbands are sent to prison by the FBI.

Without protection and with competition muscling in on their turf, these women soon realise that in order to survive Hell’s Kitchen, they’ll have to run the neighbourhood.

Written and directed by Andrea Berloff (who received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for Straight Outta Compton), The Kitchen was a real passion project for this first-time director and former Hell’s Kitchen resident.

“This is about people who were never taken seriously, who realise they can’t sit back and let things happen to them anymore,” Berloff says of her female characters.

And this high-impact drama pulls no punches when it comes to the type of gangland crimes we usually associate with the (slightly unhinged) mobster archetype – executions, racketeering and body dismemberment – only this time round, it’s women who are killing to protect their own.

Gutsy, thrilling and intensely entertaining, The Kitchen is the autumn thriller you’ve been waiting for.

The Kitchen is in cinemas from 20 September.

Book tickets to see ‘The Kitchen’ for free 

Fancy catching the brilliant gangster thriller The Kitchen before the film hits UK cinemas nationwide on Friday 20 September? 

Join Stylist Film Club for a free screening on Monday 16 September at VUE Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, London. Make sure you arrive at 6pm for a 6.30pm start. Best be quick, as tickets will go fast…

Click here to get your free tickets to The Kitchen and enter the code J8FK5U