Nerdly » ‘Kinds of Kindness’ Review

11th Jun2024

‘Kinds of Kindness’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer | Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou | Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley for this bizarre triptych of stories that are simultaneously surreal, disturbing and darkly funny. Co-written by Efthimis Filippou, who previously collaborated with Lanthimos on Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the film marks a thrilling return to the director’s signature strangeness and the unsettling sensibilities of the Greek Weird Wave.

Set in present-day New Orleans, Kinds of Kindness tells three separate stories, with each cast member playing three different characters (or four, in Qualley’s case). The stories are nominally linked by a character named in their titles, though there is very little narrative overlap, only repeated echoes of themes, lines and images.

In the first story, “The Death of R.M.F.”, Jesse Plemons plays Robert, a businessman who lives his life entirely as instructed by his controlling boss, Raymond (Dafoe), right down to what he has for breakfast and when he has sex with his wife (Hong Chau). However, when Raymond tells him to kill someone in a car crash, Robert refuses for the first time, and has to deal with the humiliating consequences as a result.

In the second story, “R.M.F. Is Flying”, Plemons plays Daniel, a police officer who believes his wife (Emma Stone) has been replaced by a doppelganger and keeps testing her in increasingly strange ways. Finally, in the third tale, “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich”, Stone plays fast-driving Emily (her purple Dodge Charger is practically a character on its own), who’s instructed by cult leader Omi (Dafoe) to team up with Andrew (Plemons), in order to find a mysterious young woman (Qualley) who may have a supernatural power.

If there’s a uniting theme across all three stories, it’s the unhealthy intersection of love, devotion and control. The characters do terrible things to each other in all three stories and this is made all the weirder by the matter-of-fact way everyone just accepts that state of affairs, in everything from their sex lives to their family and work dynamics.

As with Lanthimos’ previous films, Kinds of Kindness is shot through with a thrilling unpredictability – it’s impossible to guess where each story is going and that’s part of the pleasure. To that end, the various events are shocking, but also darkly funny, as boundaries are continually pushed, particularly if you’re the squeamish type. (On a similar note, anyone who thought there was “too much sex” in Poor Things is strongly advised to stay away from Kinds of Kindness for the good of their own delicate sensibilities).

The performances are terrific across the board, with each actor completely embracing Lanthimos’ distinctive rhythms in terms of deadpan line delivery. Stone is every bit as fearless here as she was in Poor Things and she’s a joy to watch, but Plemons is the stand-out, finding humanity and sympathy in largely pathetic characters in a way that recalls the work of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In addition, Dafoe is on typically great form as the various authority figures, embuing each one with a sort of Lynchian malevolence. There’s also strong support from both Qualley and Chau and the entire cast gel together so well that you strongly hope Lanthimos is assembling a Wes Anderson-esque repertory company and they’ll all come back for his next project too.

Kinds of Kindness is further enhanced by Robbie Ryan’s distinctive widescreen cinematography and a compellingly unsettling score from composer Jerskin Fendrix, as well as some superb soundtrack choices – fans of the trailer will be pleased to know that The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) is front and centre, for example.

On a final note, credits sequence aficionados are in for a treat too, because each of the three stories comes with its own closing credits sequence and without giving anything away, the second one is one of the movie highlights of the year. Oh, and stick around for a post-credits scene right at the end, which will give you a degree of closure you probably weren’t expecting.