The saying is widely used that you either love Yorgos Lanthimos or hate him, but no matter how hackneyed it is, it is no less true. The Greek director accumulates fervent admirers in the same way that he must face nicknames such as “overrated” or “pedantic” from those who think that he fills empty products with extravagance with which he teases viewers. Well then, Viewing ‘Kinds of Kindness’, it doesn’t look like this is going to be the film of consensus between the two sides.
The return to the script of Lanthimos with his inseparable companion Efthymis Filippou, an alliance that we have not seen since 2017 with ‘The Sacrifice of a Sacred Deer’, returns us to an enigmatic and disconcerting Lanthimos, with a work much more Hollywood than his previous worksbut that maintains part of the essence of what the Greek director has always been, with all that this entails.
Jesse Plemons presents his candidacy for the Oscar
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is a triptych reminiscent of other genres such as novels or theater which tells three stories: ‘The Death of RMF’, ‘RMF is Flying’ and ‘RMF Eats a Sandwich’.
The first tells the life of Robert Flecher (Jesse Plemons), a worker at a strange company led by Raymond (Willem Dafoe). stuck at a crossroads due to his boss’s obligations. In the second, Daniel (Jesse Plemons) is a police officer whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) returns home after being missing in an accident, but act differentlyThe third and final of the stories stars Emily (Emma Stone) and Andrew (Jesse Plemons), two members of a sect that They are looking for a girl with a gift to bring the dead back to life.
As we see, both Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone, as well as Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie, play different characters in each of the three stories. In fact, Qualley gets to put himself in the shoes of up to four different people during the footage. This provides dynamism and serves to discover once again the acting range of these renowned performers, who in the film are in a constant exploration to discover how far they can go with their characters. They are in creative mode, playing with the limits, taking advantage of the freedom of Yorgos Lanthimos.
Although Emma Stone is once again at a high level, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ is Jesse Plemons’ film, which will possibly catapult him, at the very least, to an Oscar nomination. He already won the best actor award at Cannes, and seeing him in each of his roles in the film, we understand why. The actor is brilliant in his three roles, all so diverse from each other, showing us all the faces of anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, relief, envy or coldness.
The world of Lanthimos
Dividing the film into three different and slightly interconnected stories under the strange character of RMF (Yorgos Stefanakos) helps the film, 2 hours and 44 minutes long, don’t make it long or heavy. In fact, it leaves us wanting to know more about what happens with the characters or the reason for some situations that occur, which sometimes simply happen without a clear reason, although The puzzle pieces will probably fit together better with another extra viewing..
But that’s Lanthimos, accustomed to telling what but not the why or how so that these fly free in our imagination. In ‘Kinds of Kindness’ he shows us his universe under his own rules: only seeing part of what happens in it disturbing cryptic loaded with perversion, anguish and black humorwhere the dream world plays a fundamental role in the script and even in the soundtrack (with the fantastic ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ as the main song). It is mandatory to leave out any reasoning to enjoy the stay. If you do, you will never want to leave.
Of course, let’s not overlook things that convince us less for the mere fact of being guests of their world. Not all ‘Kinds of Kindness’ stories work the same, although it is difficult to choose one, and even within them there are ups and downs. Like the crude way of dealing with some aspects such as violence, sex, abuse or rape, will upset or distress many. For not insisting on unnecessary nudessomething that was already attributed to Lanthimos in ‘Poor Creatures’.
Some of these aspects make ‘Kinds of Kindness’ a brutal film in its broadest sense, uncomfortable and difficult to watch. But When a Yorgos Lanthimos film is no longer a Yorgos Lanthimos film, it will no longer be Yorgos Lanthimos..
8
The best: The structure of the film. The triptych of stories means that you never get bored despite its length. The level of the actors facing such a difficult challenge, especially Jesse Plemons.
Worst: Some controversial decisions and situations in the script. The potential of some characters could have been exploited even more.
