Kinds of Kindness Review: At Creative Writing School With Lanthimos, Between Sex, Cults And Cannibals
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Hunter Schafer and Mamoudou Athie
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Where we Watched: Cannes Film Festival
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Kinds of Kindness was highly anticipated at Cannes 2024, also by the result that the Greek director recently achieved with Emma Stone in Poor Things, here returning at full speed to collaborate with him. This time, however, Lanthimos seems to have taken if not a step back, at least an unnecessary return to his origins, almost wanting a self-indulgent work with which he rides his usual themes but without major variations in rhythm and tone, without bringing anything new. Perfect cast, memorable moments, and sumptuous direction as always, but the sharpness is missing, that something that makes the difference is missing. Surprising because it was launched very (too?) close to Poor Things Lanthimos’ greatest commercial success, again with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, is a film much loved by both audiences and critics and which is still quite lively on the market. The fans of the early Lanthimos will rejoice, the one who filmed in the Greek language and explored the darkest black side of being human, with cynicism and a flair for primordial violence capable of conceiving chilling scenes and plot twists.
More sacred deer and Lobster than in The Favorite and Poor Things, but overall the most apt comparison is the one with Dogtooth. Kinds of Kindness, however, is a story in itself, because it is indeed a return to the origins, but also the work of a director who has matured greatly since 2009 (the year he made Dogtooth) and has faced a profound evolution in his visual style. At the start of the film, he is once again the director of static shots, of the camera glued to the ground à la Haneke, but then he gives in to a hybrid dynamism that makes Kinds of Kindness very enjoyable. By now the extreme usability of his stories is inherent even in the most authorial moments of his cinema. Kinds of Kindness certainly is enjoyable and smooth, with the important premise that it is still a film intended for an adult audience and people comfortable with graphic and psychological violence at the cinema. Abstain weak stomachs, because due to the themes covered and the violence shown, you have to be very cynical and very knowledgeable to enjoy the vision without suffering it.
Kinds of Kindness Review: The Story Plot
Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film, a sort of trilogy of three medium-length films, united by the use of the same actors in different roles and the character of RMF, always evoked in the title. The protagonists of the three stories are Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, dealing with a hat trick of controversial and sticky characters. In the first story, Plemons decides to say no to a single request from Raymond (Willem DeFoe), the man who has dictated his existence for ten years, sending him an autographed note every day with precise instructions on what to wear, what to eat, at what time go to sleep, whether to have sex with his wife or not.
In the second story, Plemons is a policeman whose wife has been missing for days, after the shipwreck of the scientific expedition of which the woman was part. When Liz (Emma Stone) returns, her husband is certain that the woman in front of her is not her wife and tries to exploit the blind loyalty of what she believes to be a scammer to unmask her. In the third episode, the two interpreters are the envoys of a bizarre sect that is looking for a woman capable of resurrecting people. Members of the community are asked to drink only water purified by the two founders and to abstain from romantic relationships with anyone other than Omi and Aka, the holy men of the sect.
Yorgos Lanthimos with Kinds of Kindness offers his usual disturbing, grotesque cinema, embellished with dark humor and a mocking tone which however go in tandem with restlessness, an amused but cynical vision of society, man, and his nature. Three episodes written together with Efthimis Filippou with a total duration of almost three hours, which in the end have weight, so much so that one wonders if the structure chosen by the Greek director was the right one. Lanthimos was the winner at the last Venice and at the recent Oscar night, but this is an ontological cinematographic project that takes him back to the times of The Lobster, Dogtooth, and even The Favorite but not as much as would have been needed. Margaret Qualley, William Dafoe, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer, and Hong Chau support the two, Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone. They are always at the center, always the driving force, always chameleonic in a charming, graceful, and effective way, as they outline different shades of perversion, human toxicity, control mania, and hypocrisy.
And following in their footsteps, we find ourselves tossed among homages to slapstick comedy, the glamorous cinema of the 80s, and much more. The first episode of Kinds of Kindness is connected to a rich businessman (Dafoe) who controls every shred of the existence of his subordinate (Plemons), repaying him with wealth, and exclusive gifts, with which to fuel a homoerotic toxic relationship. But an unusual request will put that unstable relationship in danger. In the second, a policeman (Plemons) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown over the fate of his wife (Stone), reported missing during a scientific expedition at sea.
However, when she is saved and returns home, he no longer recognizes her, she thinks that she has been replaced by a lookalike, and a sort of absolutely crazy psychological war will begin between the two of her. We then arrive at the third, a sect halfway between New Age and Sexmania, with two members (Plemons and Stone) tasked by the Guru (Dafoe) with looking for a possible messiah, capable of resurrecting the dead. The three episodes have nothing in common, yet have a lot in common, when they tell us about unspeakable desires, asociality, difference from the norm, selfishness, and above all the total absence of empathy. But the final result is certainly less successful, less daring than what one might expect from the usually so-surprising Greek filmmaker.
Kinds of Kindness Review and Analysis
Cults, cannibalism, explicit sex scenes, constant references to instincts of dominance, submission, masochism, and sadism: Kinds of Kindness double to the right Poor Things out of a desire to provoke. It’s not so much what we see (a lot anyway, in terms of violence, nudity, intercourse, mutilations), but the brutal way in which these scenes are introduced without mediation, without crescendo. This film proves right to those who claimed that Poor Things He was however measured and cautious in his provocations. Apart from the character of RMF and the actors, there isn’t much that links the three episodes of the film, held together by a series of current fixations that have always innervated Lanthomos’ cinema: the upper-class context told with an icy gaze, the relationship of extreme control with food, that of power between full-blown couples or people who feel mutual attraction, testing the loyalty of others bordering on self-harm, the dizziness of those who are subjected to control, the horror that sometimes inspires freedom.
Jesse Plemons has the director and his lucky stars to thank: Kinds of Kindness does for him what Poor Things he did for Emma Stone. His three characters are tonally very different and allow him to showcase his remarkable range of performance. Compared to a Dogtooth, however, it lacks a bit of bite. Lanthimos enjoys provoking with a purpose and not just for the sake of doing it. Lanthimos here seems to play with provocation and violence (and for this reason, many will hate the film), like the cat who torments the mouse while enjoying his landscape. It’s as if the film’s most shocking passages exist because Lanthimos wants to make sure he shakes off the fame and esteem he acquired in Hollywood, which forces him to be the presentable version of the cynical and provocative artist. It is a film that is almost a gesture of annoyance, a wriggling, a loud and clear reminder for the studios and all of us: I can be the friendly provocateur if I feel like it, but in reality, I am a cosmic pessimist who behind the purest of love and brotherhood between people sees in us the blackest black, the primordial instinct to control and abuse the other.
What is surprising, if anything, is how Emma Stone willingly follows Lanthimos, tackling absolutely brutal and sinister scenes with undeniable enthusiasm, like her colleague Margareth Qualley, who has always shown enthusiasm for extreme and bizarre projects. What’s missing from Kinds of Kindness? A bit like Quentin Dupieux’s opening film, the desire wants to go beyond the fun of provoking one’s audience, disregarding their expectations, and destroying what they think they know about Lanthimos and his cinema. However, not everything is so well finished, so centered, not even at the writing level. The three ideas are very captivating and the solutions that Lanthimos approves of are refined, complex, even if sometimes a little banal, gratuitous underneath (the use of “Sweet Dreams” at the beginning, the entire resolution of the second story).
In Kinds of Kindness, the first thing you notice is how Lanthimos enjoys playing, in an almost perverse way, with the sensations it emanates, promising an explosive irony which however, as it progresses, becomes irregular, often leaves space if not for drama, then for a very disturbing and even scary grotesque, with horror tinges. The fundamental principle with which to approach this film is simple: none of the characters (or almost none) are positive, none of them is anything other than a reprehensible, deviant, crazy, in some cases pathetic scoundrel. They are often victims and perpetrators together, they are stupid and mediocre, they are narcissistic, and they are disturbed. Here sex is connected to identity and physicality that is both classic and fluid, but which simply responds to gluttony, power and role play, and hedonism, with numerous elements that connect to certain shameful sects and congregations that have lately shaken America’s showbiz and beyond.
Kinds of Kindness also connects, albeit at an embryonic level, to the science fiction of Jack Finney, Hitchcock, to the old-fashioned erotic thriller, and even to noir, but there is also room for HG Wells, Poe, in short for all that wealth of literature and cinema that uses our minds against us. There is only one problem though: Lanthimos has already shown us all this, we have already seen it. Furthermore, Stone, Plemons, Qualley, and Dafoe (the most used) have already become bearers of it at other times in similar ways. Of the three episodes, the first is the best, it is where Dafoe mocks the high-performance and insecure modern male, and it is where Plemons gives his best with a pusillanimous man. The second has more than one interesting idea, it is the most linked to thrillers and dark fairy tales, then comes the third where there is a higher dose of humor but also less stratification.
Let’s say also by the evolution it had shown, this film marks an adjustment for Lanthimos, tainted however by a certain lack of humility, by a vanity that becomes inconsistent when he exaggerates with shots as an end in themselves, gets lost in lengthy quite vain. For goodness’s sake, Kinds of Kindness is still a Lanthimos film in terms of rhythm, and ability to play with characters and situations, but it doesn’t develop its potential, it reflects too much on itself and what’s worse it becomes predictable. It remains to be seen how Cannes 2024 will also welcome this divisive title, yet another of an edition in which at the moment there doesn’t seem to be a real favorite, and where above all the most anticipated filmmakers have not been unanimously convinced. Kinds of Kindness is in every sense an unexpected film, that plays with the spectator’s expectations (which arrives after the visual opulence of The Favorite and Poor Things), stringing together truly unpredictable twists and turns.
Although there is therefore no narrative, thematic and philosophical complexity of Lanthimos’ previous works, this film also inevitably remains imprinted. The film, as we said, explores the toxic power dynamics between an employer and his employee, between husband and wife, and between spiritual leaders and their followers. The starting points are rather simple, but then the individual stories evolve and develop unexpectedly, dragging the viewer on a very particular journey into the absurd and the horror. Not all the episodes are at the same level: if the first is in our opinion excellent, the other two do not convince us in the same way, especially due to the slightly fluctuating pace. Stylistically, all three are extremely incisive and, also thanks to the performances of the extraordinary cast – which includes Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Hunter Schafer, and Mamoudou Athie – magnetic.
Above all, Plemons is striking for the commitment with which she gives life to her three characters, giving us figures that slide from the pathetic to the disturbing with disarming ease. It’s difficult to take your eyes off once you’ve started watching and, although this Kinds of Kindness is completely different from what you would expect to see from the director of Poor Things (but long-time fans have certainly not forgotten everything that came before), we still appreciated the directorial and narrative game implemented by the author, who enjoys experimenting with his art, with a decidedly different ambition but without betraying his soul as a storyteller capable of laying bare the human soul. Lanthimos’s are delightfully dark fairy tales, at times repulsive, but which undoubtedly keep you glued to the screen.
Kinds of Kindness Review: The Last Words
Kinds of Kindness has little to do with Lanthimos’ previous work, Poor Things, but drags the viewer into a horrifying and repelling anthology of stories. The star cast is worth the ticket. It reminds you of certain creative writing exercises for writers, developed and carried out by a formidable student. The three episodes of Kinds of Kindness start from an absurd situation and move into even more unexpected territories, often leaving people taken aback and sometimes even shocked. Lanthimos certainly wants to provoke and is willingly followed by Emma Stone who is enthusiastic about the extreme roles she finds herself in her hands. Like any writing exercise, it shows the talents of those who carry it out, but there is something artificial, constructed, like a task done to test oneself, to pass the time, to take advantage of the moment of grace in which, in Searchlight and Hollywood no one dares say no to you, no matter how crazy your new script is.
Kinds of Kindness Review: At Creative Writing School With Lanthimos, Between Sex, Cults And Cannibals - Filmyhype
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Date Created: 2024-05-18 18:41
3.5
Pros
- The three stories are intriguing
- The amazing performers, including in particular Plemons and Stone
- The delightfully unexpected turns
Cons
- The pace is rather fluctuating
- Not all episodes are at the same level
