Berkreviews KINDS OF KINDNESS

Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s early films had a cynical, dark humor that satirized elements of society in a way that could easily alienate audiences. The Favourite and Poor Things, while still pushing the boundaries of what many audiences can tolerate, were far more mainstream than his previous two American-released films, The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer. Fans of his early films will see much more of his style in his new movie Kinds of Kindness, which will likely make some unfamiliar with his quirky satirical style stomp out angry or confused. 

Kinds of Kindness unfolds through three separate stories, called a “triptych fable” in the provided summary.  These are connected thematically and feature the same stable of actors playing different parts. Jesse Plemmons is the lead in the first story and most of the second, while Emma Stone takes over in the second story and is the lead in the third. Each story centers around a person’s devotion to others, and the costs they are willing to spend to prove their faithfulness. 

Stone and Plemmons continue to demonstrate their incredible onscreen abilities and the range in which they can go. Plemmons can play a character that seems groveling and pathetic one moment, only to be an intimidating presence whose look makes you want to run and hide the next. Stone’s collaboration with Lanthimos has been incredible to watch, and her talent as a top-tier movie star and screen actor has solidified as one of the best. 

Rounding out the other major characters are Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, Joe Alwyn, and, with a lot less screentime, Hunter Schafer. Each brings something special to this movie. Dafoe shines the most in the first story, with Qualley getting much more to do in the third. Athie needs to be given more lead roles, as he is able to shine every time he is given anything to do. There is a moment in the second story with Plemmons, Qualley, and Athie having dinner that brings the absurdity to its hilariously uncomfortable boiling point. 

That’s a Lanthimos trademark. His movies will make audiences feel incredibly uncomfortable. One way this film really grates at the audience’s breaking point is the dissonant score. Very early on, Jerskin Fendrix’s score makes itself intrusively known to the audience. The notes are every so slightly bashed together to make sure it makes the hairs on the back of your neck rise in irritation. The characters are uncomfortable, and so must be the audience. They’re scratching at an itch they just can’t reach, but they’re not going to stop trying. 

Kinds of Kindness is a movie that’ll be better understood on repeat viewings. For some, that may sound like a masochistic experiment, but for the fans of Lanthimos and his dark sensibilities as a filmmaker, it’ll be a welcome return to form. The biggest challenge for many audiences will be their ability to endure the discomfort for the entirety of the movie’s almost three-hour runtime – especially if they can’t get into the shifting stories and the reintroduction to new surrealist worlds. 

Kinds of Kindness is in theaters everywhere on June 28.

Rating: Not Quite Golden, Ponyboy