‘Kinds of Kindness’ Review: Yorgos Lanthimos goes on a messed up Mother Goose kick
Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
R: Strong/disturbing violent content, strong sexual content, full nudity, and language.
Runtime: 2 Hrs and 44 Minutes
Production Companies: Element Pictures, Film4, TSG Entertainment
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Yorgos Lanthimos Efthimis Filippou
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer
Release Date: June 21, 2024
Only In Theaters
Yorgos Lanthimos was tired of playing in that prestigious sandbox, and who can blame him? It’s been ages since the Greek filmmaker explored the weird depraved shit that made his name. Say what you will about The Favourite and Poor Things and their darkly comedic absurdity; they were accessible compared to his earlier works, notably Dogtooth, one of his most controversial flicks. With his latest feature, Kinds of Kindness, you can tell Lanthimos feels relief as he releases his mainstream steam and reverts to his perverse self – whether we want him to or not.
Kinds of Kindness is an anthology series of three 45-minute stories about people in precarious situations, trying to take control of their complicated lives. The first story, “The Death of R.M.F.” sets around Robert (Jesse Plemons), a man living a lavish life with his wife Sarah (Hong Chau), who’s picked out for him by his sugar daddy boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). When Raymond cuts him off over a botched assignment, Robert has to learn how to live independently. The second tale, "R.M.F. is Flying," tells of a cop named Daniel (Plemons) who is grieving over the disappearance of his wife, Liz (Emma Stone), being a downer to everyone around him, including his best friend Neil (Mamoudou Athie) and Neil’s wife Martha (Margaret Qualley). When Liz returns, Daniel senses something’s off about her and tries to get to the bottom of it. Lastly, "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich" follows Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons), cult members trying to find a person who has harbored the power of resurrection.
If you can’t love him at his Dogtooth then you don’t deserve Yorgos at his Kinds of Kindness. Well, I can’t say that I’ve watched Dogtooth. Still, in the other pre-Favourite films I’ve seen that he penned alongside co-writer Efthimis Filippou, there’s an unhinged giddiness to Lanthimos delving into the ambiguous and absurd while scaling back to minimalist storytelling. The man is Greek, and tragedies are his passion, told with an idiosyncratic cynicism that you can only enjoy if you’re as fucked up as he is. I picked up what Lanthimos put down in Kinds of Kindness… for the first of his three stories.
Peaking painfully early, “The Death of R.M.F.” is an incredible, tightly-told co-dependency fable featuring an exceptional Jesse Plemons performance. It’s the one that best utilizes his vast skill set and showcases that he’s a true tour de force. As you witness Robert’s descent into madness, Plemons puts on a camouflaging display of hilarious patheticism and compulsive obsession to the point of uneasiness. At times, he eases into both within seconds, and you feel every dynamic shift in his performance. Otherwise, it’s also the funniest short of the bunch, with most of the jokes stemming from the early Looney Tunes-styled wackiness from its immaculate, comically attuned ensemble.
Lanthimos's ensemble is committed to the shorts' dry, monotonous bits. There is no need to mention Emma Stone, who just won an Oscar for his previous effort, Poor Things. Same with Willem Dafoe, whom I adored here more than I did in Poor Things, mainly due to Lanthimos saying, “We will give Willem Dafoe insane sex appeal on two separate occasions,” and it kinda works. Don’t be surprised when people see his Jared Leto cult leader outfit and go, “Hear me out”. However, because this is Lanthimos’ first time with Plemons, Hong Chau, and Mamoudou Athie, he sees them in their peculiarities, enhancing their skill set to make these shorts entertaining despite their varying quality.
Each short sports more tonal grime and obscene imagery than the last, but it’s a shock value that only his diehards will appreciate. That’s not to discredit the humor from the remaining two segments. Yet there’s a revolving unbearable self-indulgence that’s often annoying. Some of that is due to the long-winded, hollow monologues about love and contentment, an overall theme played across the shorts, and others are caused by composer Jerskin Fendrix’s discordant piano score that correlates to the anxiety-inducing tension occurring on screen. It’s like an annoying signal that does the opposite of its intent, becoming more evident in Lanthimos’s assertiveness, asking if you feel uncomfortable while he’s actively being disingenuous about it. At least Robbie Ryan’s glitzy cinematography juxtaposing the black comedy makes it a visually mesmerizing time.
The second and third stories in this anthology suffer from uneven pacing. I couldn’t care less about the "R.M.F. is Flying” segment outside of the subversive “video” joke. We saw a lesser Plemons performance in a hollow tale about love and abuse. Plus, it left a bad taste in my mouth with a random “Kool-Aid” line uttered by a hospitalized Black man that had me side-eying the screen (and the other Black critic sitting beside my editor).
“R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” slightly counteracts the previous short's quality through a fascinating character-orientated study about freedom and persistence that I became more appreciative of the longer I sat with it.
Kinds of Kindness has Yorgos Lanthimos letting his freak flag fly to both his benefit and detriment with an uneven yet entertaining anthology that is as funny as it is frustratingly indulgent. If you’re one of the Yorgos O.G.’s, this is for you.
Rating: 3/5 | 60%
