The film stars Raúl Briones, Rooney Mara, Soundos Mosbah, Anna Diaz, Motell Foster, Oded Fehr, Eduardo Olmos and Spenser Granese.

When asked about their dreams by Pedro, Nonzo, the dessert cook, tells the strange story of an handicapped immigrant who was touched twice by an alien green light, the first time saving him from deportation.

[11] Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com called the film "a monumental work of righteous anger" that "aims at the grinding, chewing machinery of not only the American dream but the remnant of the failed egalitarian promise of the industrial commerce".

[12] The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney wrote "There's a surging life force felt in every scene of Alonso Ruizpalacios' superbly acted La Cocina — at times ebullient but more often on edge, if not careening dangerously toward disaster or violence".

[13] IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a B, writing, "The more that La Cocina alternates between operatic long-takes and grease-stained close-ups, the more you can feel its characters fighting to retain their souls in the face of a parable that’s eager to cast them as collateral damage".

[14] In a more critical review, Screen International's Lee Marshall wrote "This constant striving for symbolic import sums up the issues of a maximalist drama that is full of drive, ideas and ambition, but charts no satisfying dramatic arc, and too often feels simply strident".