One of the most anticipated titles of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival has met expectations. After the discontent of the majority with Megalopolis, Kinds of Kindness has driven the audience at the event crazy. After his success with Poor Creatures, Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film confirms the consecration of the Greek filmmaker in Hollywood. A film in which he once again stars his fetish actress, Emma Stone, and which tells three different stories.
Kinds of Kindness is a fable in triptych form that immerses the viewer in three captivating stories. A “very crazy” idea that has conquered the audience of the French festival since the ovation was spectacular as soon as Yorgos Lanthimos’ name appeared in the credits. And the film moves away from its latest films to return to its origins. In fact, the script was written in four hands with Efthimis Filippou, who also worked with Canino, the Alps,, Lobster, and The Sacrifice of a Sacred Deer.
The first story tells the struggle of a trapped man, desperate to take the reins of his own existence. The second focuses on a terrified police officer whose wife, who had disappeared at sea, has returned, but something about her has changed drastically. Finally, we explore the determination of a woman who seeks someone with a special gift, destined to become an exceptional spiritual leader.
The three independent stories have as a common denominator the interpreters Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, Mamoudou Athie, Hong Chau, and Hunter Schafer. Of course, none of them play the same character in the different plots.
Its value comes from the sum of the parts.
“It doesn’t have the visual finish or the aesthetic strength of his previous films. The staging is much simpler”. CVVNews publisher point out that, despite “having made it very quickly,” Kinds of Kindness is a film that almost “comes in at 3 hours.” In fact, Lanthimos’ new project becomes his longest project because “it’s like a three-part miniseries.”
Editor highlights that “a large part of the merit” lies in “the absolute dedication” of the actors in the three stories “with similar themes.” “In all the plots, there are mutilations, cannibalism, violence, homicides, suicides, and animal abuse,” he says. What Lanthimos seeks is to “make a great satire of human weaknesses in stories where the most marked factor is the domination that some people have over others, which may simply be a matter of power.”
The Greek filmmaker deals with this topic from a humorous perspective. “You have to have a good sense of humor to laugh at certain things, since the bizarre things that come out are not a dish of good taste for everyone”. Furthermore, the critic warns that it is “a film that is uncomfortable to watch at times and is unpleasant,” although it also gives way to “relax and laugh.”
“They are tremendously absurd stories where humor comes through the absurd,”. In Kinds of Kindness, you face “three stories whose plots are quite insane, but they have the particularity of showing where human beings show ourselves to be weak and obedient in the face of others with dodgy intentions.”
