So eight months after his hit and Academy Award-winning film Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos is back in the theater with what will be the wildest film of summer 2024 – Kinds of Kindness. Now, unlike many other critics, I don’t sit and read all the news from the Cannes Film Festival, but I did know it had a great showing there. When I went to the pre-screening event with Influencers around with their followers around eating free food, I knew they would be in for a surprising film experience. Now, mind you, I had no idea what this film was about, and with the bright and cute promo items, I was on guard since Poor Things; I didn’t expect what I saw. So here we have a film that’s long as hell, but you will not feel it since it’s actually three short films that are like modern fables that I don’t completely understand the lesson. Kinds of Kindness is a hilarious comedy at times, a weird Twilight Zone, and a usual Yorgos piece of cinematic art.
The cast is filled with acting heavy hitters playing different characters in each story. Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chou, Joe Alwyn, and Mamoudou Athie are the core cast in each story. Hunter Schafer and Merah Benoit are in the last story of the film, along with Yorgos himself, making cameos in each story as a character that each story’s title is connected to called R.M.F. The first story, “The Death of R.M.F,” is about a man named Robert Fletcher (Plemons) who is willingly controlled by his boss Raymond (Dafoe), and after he refuses to do one terrible deed, Raymond lets him go, and his life falls apart. This whole story is so damn weird and dark and really drives home the Black Comedy aspect of the film. The camera work in this scene follows the pitiful nature of Robert and how his life falls apart in shots that just make Plemons look weak and awkward close-ups and mid-shots. At times, the look reminded me of Michael Mann’s Digital Video error of filmmaking. The following story, “R.M.F. is Flying,” was, for me, like an episode of The Twilight Zone, but with more jokes. This is the part that has the actual sexual content in it, so if that’s something you’re not into, it’s about an hour into the runtime. I feel like the story plays with abusive relationships and gaslighting, but it upends that with its ending. In this one, Plemons plays Daniel, a Police Officer whose wife Liz, played by Stone, is lost at sea from a scientific mission. She returns but has changed from the experience and Daniel refuses to believe that this is his actual wife. Stone’s scenes are played entirely straight, and Plemons feels like a wacky Daffy Duck in his assertions about this theory. I feel I need to watch this over again to really have a well-thought-out view of what this one is trying to say, but it is my favorite one in the film.
The third section – “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” might be the most conventional style film of all three. While it’s about two people who are part of a cult looking for an extraordinary young woman, it has the good buddy-cop dynamic, and while some parts can give a quirky chuckle, this part you could see being made into a whole two-hour film from other filmmakers. This felt just right in terms of length. This one is also more of an Emma Stone focus, with Plemons playing the support role here. Along with some very strong costuming, you can understand these two characters from a few minutes on screen. Like the other two, this part also has a pretty triggering and unflinching story point for a woman character. It doesn’t glaze over it or sensationalize it, but it can turn some folks off. While this part is the most serious, it does have THE most unserious ending of them all. Again, during the screening, I was a terror in the theater with my laughter: good times, readers, good times.
I know for sure that Kinds of Kindness is not a film for everyone and some might straight up detest it. For me, it’s so far one of the most interesting films I’ve seen this year, and it’s a film that I connect to more than his last film, Poor Things. I like the ambiguity in what each story tries to say in its lessons; who knows if there are any real lessons in any of them. The performances are top-tier, and the filmmaking is great. Also, before I end this, the music is also very good at times where it sounds like it’s literally saying “No” over and over in a melody when certain things happen – again, I was dying in the theater. Kinds of Kindness is a film that is divisive, jarring, weird, and hilarious. It’s one of my favorites, and I hope people can go in with an open mind or not expect Poor Things again.
Score: A
