KINDS OF KINDNESS

US, 2024, 164 minutes, Colour.

Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, William Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Writer-directors, Yorgos Lanthimos, would probably agree that his perspective on life, especially in his earliest films, was “warped”. And, with Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, that his sense of humour was also “warped”. His kinds of kindness are not exactly kind. Something more like “destructive kindnesses”.

This is a film containing three films linked by themes and linked by the actors. It is a cinematic triptych. Each panel of a triptych to be seen by itself, but also with its links to the other panels, combining for an overall view. And this seems to be what the director wants here, three stories, and a linking theme. Overall, it is a theme of coercive power. And that coercive power means extreme manipulation of victims, tyrannical domination mixed with power complacency, physical and mental cruelty and violence. But, with his warped sense of humour, the director also offers wry satire.

The contribution of a core cast enhances the impact of the drama/humour. Emma Stone has proven herself with two Oscars, appearing in the director’s The Favourite and winning her second Oscar for Poor Things. She shines as the principal character in the third story, a story of a pseudo-messianic cult, she has a divinity in search of a religious figure who has the power to raise people to life. The power of the cult dominates her and her companion in the search.

Jesse Plemons (in 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon, Civil War) won the Best Actor award at the 2024 Cannes film Festival. He shines in the first of the stories, a primly rather straightlaced yes-man to a controller who can only be described as wicked (Willem Dafoe who also appears in the three stories). In a moment of moral questioning, his morale collapses, made to feel even more dependent than before, commanded to kill someone. By contrast in the second film, he plays a police officer is anthropologist wife disappears, reappears, his moral and mental collapse as he determines that she is a double. And this part of the triptych also introduces the theme of cannibalism.

Each story shows the versatility of the characters and the talent of the rest of the cast, Dafoe, Margaret Qualley with four roles including twins, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie.

So, after watching the three stories, the three panels of the triptych, the audience is left quite disturbed, moments of black humour, moments of horror, moments of disgust, some grim perspectives on the shallowness, the malice, the cruelty of human nature.

1. The work of the director, perspectives, offbeat? Greek background? International career and outreach?
2. The title, the tone, the issues? Irony, satire, absurdity? Black and bleak perspective?
3. The film as a triptych, the one film, the three parts interconnecting: coercive power, manipulation and submission, aberrant behaviour, sex and violence, violent deaths?
4. The work of the cast, in each story, different, appearance, accent, behaviour…?
5. The first story: the focus on Robert, exact, controlled, look and clothes, diet, relationship with his wife,+? The encounters with Raymond, his personality, appearance, speaking, controlling, with Vivian as his companion, the meetings with Robert, the international business, the order to kill the victim, Robert’s failures, change of heart, anguish, changing eating habits, going to Raymond, rebuked and rejected by Raymond, the past encounters, sexual? The gifts of the sporting trophies, the gift of the racquet, Robert and his wife, valuing the trophies? The disappearance of the is one? The buyers and the possibilities of selling the trophies, the bargaining? Robert and his encounter with Rita, organising the date, her being in hospital, his discoveries at seeing Raymond, her being controlled, failing with the killing? His change of heart, going back to Raymond, and the vicious running over the victim? And his contentment in the threesome?
6. The second story: Daniel, policeman, good service, friendship with Neil, the discussions, the meal, Neil and Martha, memories of Liz, the issue of the video, their watching, the shock of the group sex? Daniel, Liz surviving, the other members of the expedition dead? Hospital? His erratic behaviour, police work, the shooting of the passenger, licking the blood, being suspended? Neil trying to help? At home, the interactions with Liz, her behaviour, different? With her father, narrating the dream, dogs living as humans? Going to please Daniel, his withdrawing, not eating, asking her to cut off her finger, her cooking it, his giving it to the dog? Her frustration, his demanding the liver, her cutting it out? The alternate Liz, arriving, his embracing her??
7. Third story: the background of the cult, the members, garb, the enclosure, the rituals? The leadership of Omi and his wife? Manner, style? Emily and Andrew, members of the cult? Emily and her control, going to the morgue, choosing the girl as able to raise the dead, the attendant, the corpse, her attempt a raise the dead, her desperation, rejected? Emily and Andrew, their travelling together, a speedy and reckless driving, the mission, searching for the special person who can raise the dead? Emily, her visits to her daughter, leaving the presence? The encounters with her husband, her daughter? The invitation to the meal, the drugs and headroom, his rape, her being rejected by the cult? Her growing desperation, the instructions by Omi and his wife? Her dream, drowning, the rescue? Rebecca, coming to the diner, the explanations? Emily, her decisions, pretending to have the dog, wounding it, Ruth as the vet, kindly? The next encounter, bugging Ruth, Rebecca satisfied, killing herself, going to the morgue, the dead body, Ruth – and the raising to life? Andrew and Emily reinstated?
8. The mid-credits final sequence, the irony of the dead man raised to life, after being killed by Robert, raised by Ruth, and eating the sandwich and spilling the ketchup? Final ironies?