REVIEW: New Film, Kinds Of Kindness, Bizarre and Squirmish Take on Love, Power and Control

Yorgos Lanthimos leaves no room for the faint of heart and asks, “What you are willing to do,” in the Cannes premiere of his new triptych Kinds of Kindness. The new film brings heavy talent hitters with Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer.

Trigger warning. This review discusses portrayals of graphic content and sexual abuse within the film.

Set in three separate stories, the cast of Kinds of Kindness is trickled across and repurposed for all three. Jesse Plemons stars as an uberly submissive employee who takes orders from his boss, Willem Devoe, from the home he buys, the wardrobe he chooses, and the wife he ultimately marries. Things take a twist too far when he’s asked to slam his SUV into a car at an intersection (for a second time as he didn’t get it right on the first), which would result in manslaughter which he is not too keen on. Upon divulging all of this to his wife (Hong Chau) looking for some sort of support, he is spiritually and physically bitchslapped as she takes off to Germany nowhere to be found.

Part two finds Plemons portrays a police officer whose wife disappears (Hong Chau) and reappears as Emma Stone’s character. He’s quite thrown off at her sexual prowess, which has him engage in all types of explicit activities at home, including with willing participants, a duo portrayed by Mamoudou Athie and Margaret Qualley.

Emma, in part three, portrays a loyal employee of her boss (Willem Devoe), who is on the hunt to find a spiritual leader for what appears to be and has all the makings of a cult. Those that engage in sexual activity are deemed contaminated and not worthy of their literal pool of tears, and Stone’s character is ejected when her husband, whom she abandoned with their daughter, upon a visit, rapes her after drugging her drink. Stone is wildly entertaining as she tears through the film in a gaudy purple mustang, dances like no one is watching and delivers another exceptional performance and follow up to Poor Things.

Each part of Kinds of Kindness is wildly different, but where they form some resemblance is that each one is equally bizarre and shocking, with viewers not knowing what to expect in this vividly stunning project with inviting color, tone, and a score that will haunt you. There are themes that overlap, including the idea of control and power, love and relationships, betrayal, lies, coercion, and submission.

 
“It is interesting to observe how much man thinks he has control over things or is free to decide them. How much, once he has this freedom, all this becomes difficult for him to manage.”

– Yorgos Lanthimos

At roughly over two and a half hours, ensure you have a strong espresso before tackling this one, as you don’t want anything flying over your head, the fun part is the dissection. Yorgos and co-screenwriter Efthimis Filippou jam-pack Kinds of Kindness with all sorts of details to unravel on religion, corporate America, and the constructs of marriage and relationships tied with a literal bloody and gruesome ribbon in a meticulous bow. For those who loved Yorgsos’ early work, this falls right in line with his style, and for those new to his work who enjoyed Poor Things, buckle your seatbelts because it gets even more raunchy and obsencely decadent and deranged in this New Orleans set project.

Kinds of Kindness visually stuns, from the hair and makeup to the wardrobe and sets, keeping you drawn in, attempting to figure out the pieces of this elaborate power dynamic puzzle, and searching for meaning even if there isn’t much there. Kinds of Kindness releases June 21.

Nikki Fowler

Award-Winning Publisher