In three separate but loosely connected stories, strange misfortunes and stressful tasks are thrust upon different couples.
With his ninth feature film Kinds of Kindness, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos cements his formidable reputation as one of the greatest directors of contemporary world cinema. This triptych—studded with the characteristically bizarre humor, violent shocks, and sexual preoccupation of Lanthimos’s best work—is his version of back to basics. His third successive collaboration with Emma Stone is perhaps the most stripped-down of the trio, unadorned by the ornate period trappings of The Favorites and the complex, steampunk-Victorian production design of the Alasdair Gray Poor Things adaptation. It is filmed and set in modern-day New Orleans, but it is a far cry from the instantly recognizable Creole architecture of the French Quarter: offices, roads, and seemingly ordinary suburban homes are the primary locations. As always with Lanthimos, events are rarely mundane.
We open the film with Jesse Plemons as the company’s butler Robert, carefully controlled by the knowledgeable boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). After he failed to satisfactorily execute Raymond’s command by crashing his car into another vehicle at high speed, he refused to repeat the accident and was immediately ostracized. All of Raymond’s exotic sporting gifts from Robert, such as John McEnroe’s smashed tennis racket, have been removed from his house; His wife Sarah (Hong Chow) leaves him. After Robert meets Rita (Stone) and eventually gives in to Raymond’s demands. This opener, titled “The Death Of RMF,” is the strongest of the three, giving the always convincing Plemons a rare but much-deserved lead role. It also clearly illustrates the kind of hilarious dysfunction that follows.
Lanthimos’s long-standing dedication to making weird and delightful works hasn’t changed, but the trend seems to have caught on
Each chapter sees each cast member take on a different role – with the exception of Lanthimo regular Yorgos Stefanakos, who appears briefly in each section as the peripherally silent RMF, providing the connective tissue between the stories. The overall tone is also what unites the trilogy: the dark, surreal humor, subtle sense of calm, and stately pacing are closer to Lanthimos’s previous works—particularly Dogtooth and The Lobster (like which, Kinds was co-written with Lanthimos). By Efthymis Philippou). It may unfold too slowly for some, but this measured pace gives you enough time to breathe from the many shocking moments of surprise.
Stone, who was little used in the first act, is brought to the fore as Liz, Daniel Plemons’ wife (and daughter of Georges Dafoe), in the second act. She’s a marine biologist who’s been lost at sea for some time — we get black-and-white flashbacks to her time on a desert island where she eats a human leg — and things take a sharp turn when Daniel suspects that Liz is, in fact, a double. As is often the case with anthology films, this middle section is perhaps the weakest, although there is still a lot to like. The performances remain exceptional, with Margaret Qualley and Mamoudou Athie providing strong support as Liz and Daniel’s gently sympathetic friends. One particularly shocking scene, in particular, is very funny — and remarkably honest for a major studio outing, even if it’s only fleetingly on screen. (If nothing else, it’s bound to upset online prudes who complain about sex scenes in movies.)
Finally, Dafoe returns in the final section as the cult leader Omi – a role he was born to play, being certainly one of Hollywood’s most powerful and convincing actors – while Plemons and Stone search for a woman who can awaken the dead. The horrific events that occur in the morgue and the diabolical sequence involving Stone and a dog are among the many highlights of this concluding segment.
Lanthimos, reuniting with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, has created a wild, challenging world of extraordinary people who treat each other with complete brutality, which the satirical title belies. If it’s not his finest work and a touch long at 165 minutes, it’s still made with profound humanity. It’s reassuring that he’s managed to make such big, outlandish films with A-list stars like Stone, who once again turns up in excellent form and takes risks. Lanthimos’s long-standing dedication to making strange and delightful works has not changed, but the trend seems to have caught up with him instead. In the end, it’s Yorgos’ world and we’re just smiling in it.
Yorgos Lanthimos’s film is humane, strange and very distinctive, and it is a film that makes him return to the style of his previous works after The Favorite and Poor Things.
