Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos
Premise: Three stories, each featuring the same core cast. In the first story, every intimate detail of a man’s life is controlled by his employer. In the second story a man becomes suspicious of his wife. The third story focuses on a woman who is part of a cult and searches for a prophesied spiritual guide.
What Works: The core cast of Kinds of Kindness includes Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mamoudou Athie, Margaret Qualley, and Hong Chau and everyone is quite good. Each of the three stories puts the actors in unusual and outrageous circumstances and the cast is game for what Kinds of Kindness asks of them. The film has a dark and singular sense of humor; a lot of viewers probably won’t see the comedy in it but those who do will find Kinds of Kindness very funny. Of the three stories, the third is the strongest and most interesting. Emma Stone plays a cult member searching for a prophet who fits a very specific set of qualities. More than the other segments, the third story defines its characters with nuance and complexity and the story puts something interesting at stake. Stone’s character has abandoned her husband and child to be with this cult and she is torn between two homes.
What Doesn’t: The other stories contained in Kinds of Kindness are not very good. In the first story, an employee (played by Jesse Plemons), has every aspect of his life controlled by his boss (Willem Dafoe), including his diet and intimate behaviors, in exchange for generous compensation. The film dramatizes the extent to which employers dominate the lives of their workers and how far many of us will go to maintain our lifestyles but the segment doesn’t probe that idea with much depth or drama. The end of the story is intended to be ironic and it is but not in a way that is very meaningful. The second story is about a police officer (also played by Plemons), whose wife (Emma Stone) returns after a disappearance, but he suspects she is not the same person. This story starts out well but loses its way. It doesn’t build to a climax nor does it reveal anything. The three stories are linked by a background character known as R.M.F (played by Yorgos Lanthimos). It’s a tenuous connection. Juxtaposed together, the three stories don’t reveal any greater idea or theme nor do they sustain interest. Kinds of Kindness runs nearly three hours and the outrageous moments come across as desperate provocations separated by long periods that are dramatically and comedically flat.
Bottom Line: Kinds of Kindness has elements that are bold and funny and dramatic but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Despite being weird and outrageous, Kinds of Kindness is frequently boring and the film doesn’t come together in a way that is revealing or interesting.
Episode: #1004 (July 14, 2024)