Kinds of Kindness (18)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Runtime:2hr.44m
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, Joe Alwyn, Hunter Schafer,Yorgos Stefanakos
Synopsis: KINDS OF KINDNESS is a triptych fable: following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
URL: https://youtu.be/8fYtuE_ZJ4E?si=QbW_3ZtAoIqYPGS1
BAFTA Award-winning absurdist filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is tripling down on his success. Kinds of Kindness debuted at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, with Jessie Plemons winning the festival’s best actor prize.
This offbeat triptych features top-notch character acting and Yorgos Lanthimos’ third feature film collaboration with Emma Stone (after The Favourite and Poor Things). The troupe of actors —Jessie Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe (also in Poor Things), Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, Joe Alwyn — play a new set of roles in each of the three chapters. Yorgos Stefanakoscharacter RMF appears in all three parts.
A cold-hearted triptych brimming with caustic wit, co-written by Efthimis Filippou Kinds of Kindness is Yorgos Lanthimos at his most misanthropic — and bitingly funny.
With themes of free will, trust and the power dynamics of human relationships and exploring explores how people live their lives according to their own rules and those of society or a higher authority often taken to absurd but- darkly funny heights.
Kinds of Kindness demands the viewer bring themselves to the trio of increasingly off-kilter storylines and fill in the blanks.
In the first story, Jessie Plemons plays Robert, a man whose every action is controlled by his boss (Willem Dafoe), including his romantic relationship with Hong Chau’s character. In the second, Plemons is Daniel, a policeman whose wife ( Emma Stone) goes missing on a research trip and returns under strange circumstances; Dafoe plays her father, while Chau is the spouse of another researcher who disappeared. In the final act, Dafoe and Chau play cult leaders Omi and Aka, with Plemons and Stone among their most devoted followers.
Encompassing the whole gamut of emotions Kind of Kindness can feel psychological terrifying at times, but also funny, in a dark way. The situations are bizarre — dealing in cannibalism, car crashes and sex cults — but the themes of control and power dynamics, as well as the need for comfort and love, feel relatable.
Images courtesy of :Searchlight Pictures
Jesse Plemons in KINDS OF KINDNESS. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved
