A mere six months after director Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone released their Oscar-winning movie Poor Things, they have another movie up their sleeve. Kinds of Kindness is yet another collaboration between the actor-director duo that started in 2018 with The Favourite. This absurdist dark comedy-drama anthology movie throws in some additional Poor Things alum with Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley and gives us quite a fascinating little experience that’s just as peculiar, dark, and superb as Lanthimos’s other works.
Kinds of Kindness does not unfold like your traditional narrative piece. Instead of one long story, we have three separate (but loosely connected) stories that all feature the same actors playing different characters in each story. It seems like what we would get if Lanthimos directed Pulp Fiction, with all of these stories going on that all share a few overarching ideas but are all quite different. The tone of all these stories embraces absurdism and puts the characters in strange, wholly original situations that are very twisted in the best ways.
Let’s take this movie on one by one: the first story stars Jesse Plemons as Robert, a man seeking freedom from his boss Raymond (Dafoe). This is a very well-paced, well-directed idea taken to its full potential. The idea here surrounds Raymond having a very strange amount of control over Robert’s life and how that ends up affecting Robert’s relationship with his wife, Sarah (Hong Chau). Everything about this story is strange and dark but also accessible in an interesting way. Composer Jerskin Fendrix (who may have a cameo in the film if my eyes weren’t deceiving me) used a lot of high-octave piano music to put you on edge. A lot of tension builds as one event leads to another. By the time the story comes to its dreary conclusion, you’re left quite stunned..
The second story is about Daniel (Plemons), a man whose wife, Liz (Stone), returns to him after going missing. From there, we have a compelling mystery that I don’t want to give away. This story is yet another example of narrative excellence. Lanthimos and co-writer Efthimis Filippou, who also worked together on Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, craft something very unique here. The mystery at the center of this story is engaging enough, but they always know how to take things in the darkest, most messed up direction. That’s the drama that makes everything work here.
The final story is my least favorite. While Plemons is the protagonist in both of the previous stories, this one features Stone playing Emily, a woman searching for a person with a supernatural ability. This one is my least favorite of the three. There are a few compelling ideas, but it’s also the one that’s the most out there. There’s a sexual assault in it that didn’t sit right with me, and I think the characters’ motivations here feel a bit misplaced. However, everything is very well performed, and there are many ideas that Lanthimos executes better than most directors would with this material.
One of the shining elements of Kinds of Kindness is the performances. We have an ensemble cast that includes Stone, Plemons, Dafoe, Chau, Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Mamadou Athie, and even Hunter Schafer showing up for a brief role. There is no weak link here, as they all play quite different characters in this film that makes full use of them. The standout here is Plemons, who always manages to be the best part of every film he’s in. He’s recently appeared in Killers of the Flower Moon and Civil War, and now he is taking a much more prominent role here. He’s excellent at portraying these somewhat disturbed characters.
Stone is a two-time Oscar winner for Best Actress, so the fact that she’s mesmerizing here comes as no surprise. She’s one of the most talented performers in the industry, and she is captivating every time she’s on screen. The same can be said for Dafoe, who makes full use of his presence. All of these actors must play three very distinct characters in each of these stories, and they all make the most out of their screen time.
Kinds of Kindness may not be the Oscar-winning smashing success that some of Lanthimos’s other movies have been. It doesn’t really seem like it’s trying to be. This is a movie that Lanthimos filmed just around the time Poor Things was getting released in festivals, and the production budget is less than that of Poor Things. He’s making movies left and right at a quality that many can only dream of achieving. His work here should be lauded, as well as his co-writer and every member of this stellar cast.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Kinds of Kindness review.
