Movie Review: ‘Kinds of Kindness’

Opening in theaters June 21 is ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Mamoudou Athie, Hong Chau, and Hunter Schafer.

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Initial Thoughts

For his ninth feature film, ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ Greek director and co-writer Yorgos Lanthimos (working again with his frequent writing partner, Efthimis Filippou) returns to the surreal horror/comedy of earlier works like ‘Dogtooth,’ ‘Alps,’ and ‘The Lobster.’ Not that you could call his recent, Oscar-winning films like ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’ conventional, exactly: both still incorporate Lanthimos’ sense of the absurd, his visceral approach to sex and physical violence, and a heightened reality into more linear, accessible narratives.

For ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ however, he’s gone back to the more enigmatic storytelling of his earlier films, skirting the line between dark comedy and outright horror (although more on the comedic side than, say, ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’). Perhaps in a sly wink to the format that spawned cult horror favorites like ‘Dead of Night’ (1945), ‘The House That Dripped Blood’ (1971), ‘Creepshow’ (1982) and more recent entries like ‘Ghost Stories’ (2017) and the ‘V/H/S’ series, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is an anthology film, telling three loosely connected stories starring the same troupe of actors in different roles.

The result is a long (nearly three hours) yet continuously entertaining cinematic hall of mirrors, at times frightening, revolting, and hilarious, with Lanthimos’ ensemble of actors – led, for their third feature together, by Emma Stone – clearly enjoying the exercise. Some viewers may find Lanthimos’ style here too much of a slow burn, while others may be frustrated by the unreality that intrudes in each story and his often cold view of the characters. But this is a rewarding, eerie, and unpredictable look at human behavior and the dark lengths to which people will go to win approval or acceptance.

Story and Direction

The single thread that connects the three tales is a character named R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos), who appears at key points in all three narratives yet whose presence is never fully explained. The character also provides the title for each segment. In the first, “The Death of R.M.F.,” Jesse Plemons plays Robert, a man who seems to have it all: a beautiful house, a loving wife (Hong Chau), and a successful career with a boss, Raymond (Willem Dafoe), who seemingly loves him like a son. But early on it’s made clear that Robert’s life is actually controlled by Raymond, down to what he eats, what he reads, and even when he has sex with his wife.

After Raymond gives Robert a task that Robert is simply unable to do, Robert is fired – and his life spirals downward from there. His wife leaves him, he has to sell off prized possessions, and he becomes increasingly desperate in his efforts to win back Raymond’s affection. Things are only complicated when he begins a relationship with a woman (Emma Stone) who also seems to have come under Raymond’s sinister wing.

The control that our employers have over our lives – aren’t we all on call all the time? – is very much taken to an extreme in ‘The Death of R.M.F.,’ but a theme here that recurs mainly in the third segment is our seemingly inescapable need to be accepted. Robert goes to terrible lengths to get back into Raymond’s good graces, and his spiral into near-madness is as disquieting as it is darkly humorous.

There’s a different kind of rejection afoot in ‘R.M.F. is Flying,’ the second and probably least effective of the three stories. Plemons again takes center stage as Daniel, a cop whose wife Liz (Stone) has gone missing on some sort of scientific ocean expedition. He watches videos of get-togethers with their best friends (played by Mamoudou Athie and Margaret Qualley), although the videos are not exactly of backyard barbecues. And then Liz is found and returns home – but Daniel soon begins to suspect that the woman in his house is not his wife.

There is plenty of atmosphere and the same dark humor in this segment, but even for a movie that does not rely on normal logic, its story doesn’t cohere as well as ‘The Death of R.M.F.’ or the third segment, ‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich.’ Yet Daniel’s psychological descent, combined with Liz’s apparently odd behavior, is a metaphor for the dynamics in any human relationship: how well do we truly know the person next to us, that we are spending our life with?

Emma Stone steps up to the lead role in ‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,’ playing a woman named Emily who has abandoned her husband and daughter and joined a bizarre cult led by Omi (Dafoe) and his wife Aka (Chau). She and fellow cult member Andrew (Plemons) are tasked with searching for a person prophesized to have miraculous powers, who will become a leader of great importance to the cult.

‘R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich’ sort of comes full circle, focusing on the lengths that people will go to in order to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves. It’s heavily implied that the women in the cult are allowed only to have sex with Omi, and must undergo purification rituals and face exile if they have sex with others, debasing themselves to stay within Omi’s good graces. There are contrivances along the way (Emily’s need to drive recklessly seems to exist only to serve the plot later on) and, unlike the first two segments, ‘Sandwich’ ends with an abrupt twist ending straight out of O. Henry.

Cumulatively, the stories suggest a world where reality can fray at the edges and unnatural forces can creep in, especially in the second and third tales. Unlike the lush period details of ‘The Favourite’ or the colorful fantasia of ‘Poor Things,’ ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is set in a modern-day milieu, splitting its time between bastions of wealth (Raymond’s offices and home in the first segment) and lackluster, depressing settings (Daniel’s wood-paneled home in the second story, the outside of a hospital late at night).

As in his previous work, Lanthimos is matter-of-fact in his portrayal of violence and sex: the former is abrupt, unpleasant, and inevitable (including one hard-to-watch scene where someone chops off their finger), while the latter isn’t erotic in the usual sense, but primal, urgent, and messy. Lanthimos and DP Robbie Ryan frame it and light it all simply and functionally, often going from wide shots straight to immersive close-ups involving a face or body part.

Kudos also to Jerskin Fendrix for his minimalist, ominous score, which alternates between single plinks on the piano (a la ‘Eyes Wide Shut’) more thunderous, doom-laden chords, and apocalyptic choral bursts. The music both heightens the atmosphere and comments on the action, the latter often to subtly hilarious effect.

The Cast

‘Kinds of Kindness’ is clearly a film made for actors to stretch themselves as much as possible, with all the main actors (with the exception of Hunter Schafer) playing different roles in each segment. The MVP in this case is Plemons, who plays two different needy, insecure men in the first two stories yet manages to create two complete, wholly distinctive performances (also very different from his frightening cameo in ‘Civil War’ earlier this year). He changes himself again in the third story, where he’s more of a supporting player, and his work throughout is nothing less than a tour de force.

Emma Stone, of course, is outstanding as always, with a supporting role in the first segment, a larger one in the second, and the lead in the third. Her character is more enigmatic and less fleshed out in the second story, but she is riveting in the final tale as a deeply damaged woman who has withdrawn so much from the world that she cannot even find any spare warmth for her daughter.

Willem Dafoe is excellent as a malevolent father figure in all three stories (especially in the first and last), while Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley (who does her meatiest work in segment three), Mamoudou Athie, and the rest weave seamlessly in and out of each section of the film like the members of a seasoned stage company able to take on any role in the repertory.

Final Thoughts

If you have found Yorgos Lanthimos’ work troublesome or even harrowing to sit through in the past, you might have a tough time watching ‘Kinds of Kindness’: there is cruelty (mostly to humans, but also briefly to an animal), callousness, sexual assault, and sadistic behavior. It steps in and out of reality, sometimes jarringly, and it can be frustrating in the way it doesn’t lay out the meaning of everything you see.

Yet the film is also bracing, mind-bending, and utterly unpredictable from start to finish, with the film not feeling its length at all as one gets caught up in the nightmarish surreality that Lanthimos constructs and maintains. Ironically, kindness is found only sparingly in these stories, but that may be more like the real world than anything else.

‘Kinds of Kindness’ receives 8 out of 10 stars.

What is the plot of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?

‘Kinds of Kindness’ is an anthology film, with three separate stories that are only loosely connected. The first tells of a man whose life is dominated by his boss in extreme ways; the second follows a cop who is convinced that his wife, who returns home after being missing and presumed dead, is not who she says she is; and in the third, two people hit the road on behalf of a strange cult to find a woman who’s prophesized to have incredible powers.

Who is in the cast of ‘Kinds of Kindness’?

• Emma Stone as Rita / Liz / Emily
• Jesse Plemons as Robert / Daniel / Andrew
• Willem Dafoe as Raymond / George / Omi
• Margaret Qualley as Vivian / Martha / Ruth and Rebecca
• Hong Chau as Sarah / Sharon / Aka
• Joe Alwyn as Appraiser / Jerry / Joseph
• Mamoudou Athie as Will / Neil / Morgue Nurse
• Hunter Schafer as Anna
• Yorgos Stefanakos as R.M.F.

Emma Stone in ‘Kinds of Kindness.’ Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

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