"Kinds of Kindness" Kinda Rules

Good grief, I can't tell you how much I appreciated a little Lanthimos this year. In a torpid summer season full of franchise reruns, a nasty anthology film from a weird European director was exactly what I needed. It's taken me longer than I'd like to admit, but I've really grown fond of the absurdity of Yorgos Lanthimos's work. If you'd told me fifteen years ago that I'd actually enjoy watching his characters' deadpan line delivery, frequent acts of self-mutilation, and warped attitudes toward sex, I'd have thought you were crazy.


Yet here we are. "Kinds of Kindness" is a rare anthology film, featuring three stories all with the same cast playing different characters, with one exception. Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone each play the lead of one story, and jointly share the narrative in the third. In the first story, Plemons plays a man whose life is totally controlled by his micromanaging boss, and attempts to resist. In the second, Plemons plays a cop whose wife, played by Stone, returns home after being lost at sea. Finally, Stone plays a cult member in the third story who is searching for someone who can resurrect the dead. Other members of the ensemble include Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, and Mamadou Athie, who play different roles in each story. There is one minor character in common, known only as R.M.F (Yorgos Stefanakos). He has no lines, but is a vital piece of each plot, and the stories are titled "The Death of R.M.F.," "R.M.F is Flying," and "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich."


All of the stories follow the style of Lanthimos's earlier absurdist films like "Dogtooth," "The Killing of Sacred Deer" and "The Lobster." Each explores personal relationships and human impulses through allegory, pushing the characters to wild extremes. I think that these shorter pieces, co-written with Efthimis Filippou, actually work a lot better than some of the full length feature films. The time limit forces the filmmakers to be more efficient in their storytelling, and the bizarre concepts don't have the time to grow stale. I also like the use of the same cast in each story. The characters are unconnected, but there are echoes of the same behaviors and characteristics from one performance to the next, especially because everyone's dialogue shares the same particular cadence and phrasing.


It's been a while since I've seen a film that so clearly invites interpretation. I don't want to say anything definite, except that the stories seem to be ordered by how straightforward they are. The one where Willem Dafoe is controlling Jesse Plemons' life has a pretty clear theme, and the simple premise is taken to its logical end. The next with Stone returning from the sea feels like the modern day adaptation of a folk tale, using dream logic and instances of surrealism. The final story is the most complicated, with some concepts like the cult taking longer to set up. I'm still working out my feelings towards it. Crucially, however, none of the stories feel unfinished or that they should be longer than they are.


I really enjoy all of the actors involved in "Kinds of Kindness," especially when they're able to find the notes of humor and whimsy in the madness of Lanthimos's cruel universes. Emma Stone has a celebratory dance in the last segment that is perfect in its strangeness and intensity. Jesse Plemons gradually unraveling in the first segment is a joy. Lanthimos sticks him in more and more uncomfortable parts of the frame until you can just feel him ready to explode and run amok. And after everyone's antics in "Poor Things," the one graphic sex scene in the film felt more like a punch line than anything disturbing.


The only element that feels very un-Lanthimos is the soundtrack, especially the opening with The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams." It's oddly on-the-nose, almost spoon feeding the audience the premise of the first story. Still, it made for an excellent trailer, so I'm not inclined to complain.


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