- Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hunter Schafer, Hong Chau
- June 28th 2024
- Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe play three different characters across three separate stories.
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos only released their collaboration Poor Things several months ago but they are already back on our screens with Kinds of Kindness.
This absurdist black comedy stars Lanthimos’s usual collaborators Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley alongside new players Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie and Joe Alwyn.
The film is divided into three stories – The Death of R.M.F., R.M.F. is Flying, R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich – in which the actors play different characters.
In the first story, Robert (Plemons) lets his boss Raymond (Dafoe) dictate every single aspect of his life, right down to the finest detail. When he resists an instruction for the first time, his life spirals out of control.
In the next one, Plemons plays a man convinced his wife Liz (Stone) has not returned as the same person after going missing, and in the third, they play cult members Andrew and Emily, who are trying to find a woman who can bring the dead back to life.
Those expecting a film like The Favourite or Poor Things will be sorely disappointed with Kinds of Kindness.
After directing Tony McNamara scripts for those two popular movies, Lanthimos has reunited with his co-writer Efthimis Filippou so this feels closer to his earlier works like Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
As always with Lanthimos, this film is very strange, and at times you can’t help but wonder if it’s just being weird for weird’s sake.
These characters get up to some really twisted, unhinged things that will make you either laugh in disbelief or squirm in your seat.
Also, the characters don’t speak like real humans – the dialogue is stilted, off-kilter and highly unusual, which just adds to that uncomfortable feeling. This is further compounded by the discordant piano music, which harshly shrieks randomly to put you on edge.
The first story is the best of the bunch and could have easily been bulked out into a full feature. In fact, it was disappointing when it ended because it felt like there was more of a story to tell.
The best one as a short narrative is the last because it has a beginning, middle and end and you care about Stone’s character Emily.
You have to give credit to the cast though – they throw themselves into this wholeheartedly and embrace the weirdness, making the stories intriguing and watchable despite the odd script, slow pace and shocking behaviour.
In cinemas from Friday 28th June.
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