Just six months after the world was gifted Poor Things, Director Yorgos Lanthimos is back with another collaboration with Emma Stone. This time, Lanthimos has returned to his earlier work’s darkly absurd roots with the “triptych fable” Kinds of Kindness.
The story is told in 3 loosely connected stories set in the same universe: The Death of R.M.F., a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; R.M.F. is Flying, a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing at sea has returned and seems a different person; and R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich, a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader. Each story is separate, but all feature the character, R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos), who ties the narratives together.
These three short stories revolve around what people will do for love and acceptance in increasingly absurd ways. But the acceptance they fight for might be masked as something darker. In each story, characters will do horrific things to prove their love to one another with varying results. While the same actors are featured in every film (with a few one-story-only characters), some performances are vastly different. For example, in the first story, Emma Stone’s character is an unintelligable strawberry blonde named Rita. But by the final story, she’s a devoted cult member who will do anything to achieve her goal.
The contrasting roles each actor plays in every story make the 164-minute runtime fly by, as it’s always consistently engaging onscreen to watch these masters of their craft act goofy as hell. On the other hand, I felt some of the actors were completely wasted over the three stories. For example, Mamoudou Athie is in all 3 stories (the first and third stories) and he only has a handful of lines, practically serving as a glorified cameo. It’s a shame since, in the second story, Athie is a main character and has impeccable comedic timing. The same can be said about Hunter Schafer, who is only in the third segment for 2 minutes. I hope they work with Lanthimos again because I would love to see how they would perform in more substantial roles in his films.
The cinematography for a Yorgos Lanthimos film is, as usual, beautiful. Once again shot on 35mm film by Robbie Ryan, a longtime collaborator of Lanthimos, the camerawork is beautifully done for the film, making scenes that should feel intimate have a sinister undertone. Compared to last year’s Poor Things, their partnership’s visual flair has been toned down immensely for Kinds of Kindness. This time around, the camera is used to put you in the emotions of the characters, rather than showing off landscapes and intimacy, to place you in their world.
As soon as the film starts, Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” booms through the auditorium speakers, perfectly setting the tone and getting the audience ready for a journey of characters searching for love. Once again, Jerskin Fendrix is back from Poor Things to compose music for the film. The score is mostly filled with jumbled piano notes, occasionally ramping up to leave the audience in an uncomfortable anticipation for what will happen next. The technical aspects of the film all work in tandem to make a hilariously awkward and absurd experience.
I felt all the stories were very well done, with my favorite being the third. I was constantly laughing and on the edge of my seat with the way Lanthimos balances these two tones together incredibly. From frame one, you are at a distance from this absurd world and the crew dares you to come closer. What you witness is one of the most hilarious and disturbing films of the year! Lanthimos has delivered another classic, and I will take a journey back to this uncomfortable universe plenty of times.
Kinds of Kindness premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, it was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Fillipou. The film stars Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer, and Yorgos Stefanakos.
Kinds of Kindness was released by Searchlight Pictures in NYC/LA on June 21, 2024, before expanding nationwide and in the U.K. on June 28, 2024.
