A few months ago, when watching the Oscar-nominated films, a writing colleague told us that ‘Poor Creatures’ had seemed difficult to digest. “An uncomfortable movie to watch“Poor little angel! That Frankenstein version It was one of the most accessible and conventional films in Yorgos Lanthimos’ filmography. He was the Greek director dressed in the costume that allows him to enter Hollywood. Under those layers (which also suit him very well, it must be said) hides Mr. Hyde, the other side of an unscrupulous filmmaker neither with the viewer nor with the classic narrative. For all those people who knew him with ‘Poor Creatures’ or ‘The Favorite’ and who want to see his dark side and discover something truly uncomfortable to see, we cannot help but recommend ‘Kinds of Kindness’, their new and disturbing work.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Knowing that ‘Poor Creatures’ and ‘Kinds of Kindness’ were filmed practically at the same time may help you understand the yin and yang that inhabit the director’s soulBoth films feature the same cast, but replacing Mark Ruffalo with a Jesse Plemons who we celebrate is starting to become fashionable. The others are repeat actors. Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and a Margaret Qualley again. anchored to the secondary role. But if the faces are similar, the stories and tone have nothing to do with each other. In the previous one, the most controversial thing we could see were abundant sex scenes, but in this one we will find, in addition to another dose of them, rapes, people mutilating themselves, violence against animals, cannibalism and even some suicides with children involved.
Despite all this and even at the risk of being labeled as crazy and sadomasochistic, we have to confess that ‘Kinds of Kindness’ has stolen more than one smile from us. It is as if Lanthimos had shot a film according to Hollywood standards (‘Poor Creatures’) and another in which he had taken it to the end, without limits, every joke and nonsense emerged over a few beers with his friends. There are some not so inspired moments that are missing that someone would have stopped his feetbut in general terms it exudes style and has an internal world so genuine that it captivates.
Three stories to make you have nightmares
The film divides its 2 hours and 44 minutes footage in three stories, each more surreal than the last. The first introduces us to a man (Jesse Plemons) who leaves in the hands of his boss (Willem Dafoe) all the decisions of your lifeWhat he eats, when he fucks, how he dresses and behaves, and even whether or not he can have children with his wife. Anything to be surrounded by luxury and in a good position. Lanthimos’s story tells what happens when he finally refuses to follow an order and opens a can of worms that also recur in the other two stories: submission and power relations.
The second story is about a man (again a dazzling Jesse Plemons) whose wife (Emma Stone) has disappeared. When he finally They find her on a desert island many weeks later and returns home, the husband will begin to suspect that the person who has returned is not really his wife, but a being with the same form. Why doesn’t she remember her favorite song? How come she smokes and eats chocolate if she had never liked both things? In his descent into madness he will then demand some insane tests of love based in the most primitive impulses of the human being. And she, who comes from surviving her basic instincts, will not take long to surrender.
The latest, and craziest if possible, follows two members of a cult (Emma Stone and, surprise, Jesse Plemons) who search for a person capable of resurrecting the dead. They are convinced that there is someone with this gift and they even have a description of all the requirements that the chosen one must meet. Contains morgue visits, crazy tests and moments as extravagant as they are fun. When both seem to have found the one, their past They will get in the way and do whatever they can. so as not to end up being expelled from their new family. When we say whatever is whatever.
Jesse Plemons Unleashed
Although Emma Stone always delivers and Willem Dafoe is especially good, Jesse Plemons may deliver here one of the best jobs of his career. Three different and complex characters that he masters and with whom he completely surrenders to the madness of his director. A Greek gifted who is capable of going from drama to comedy with a single gesture of his puppets.
Let us also make special mention of certain WONDERFUL monologues at the end of each story in which the biggest nonsense of the film is released to us with melodramatic music in the background. It is achieved give substance to banality And all those supposedly transcendental moments from so many films and series are parodied. In fact, Margaret Qualley stars in one and she comes from a series that, however good it is, ends with another one, ‘The Leftovers’. A very fine irony. It gives us life.
Final assessment
‘Kinds of Kindness’ brings us back to the most mischievous and unbridled Lanthimosthe one we thought we had lost behind the flashes and the red carpets of Hollywood. The Greek director presents us here three most surreal stories about power relations. Three stories full of scenes without taboos and as funny as they are uncomfortable to watch. It is impossible for the film to leave you indifferent, as it is also impossible not to applaud the tremendous performances of its otherwise tremendous cast. Sometimes it drags on and in many scenes you miss someone questioning the filmmaker, but it is a price we gladly pay in exchange for certain bursts of style, originality and lively genius.
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