Yorgos Lanthimos manifests what can only be described as a total freedom of expression in his latest feature film Kinds of Kindness. Compared to his late 2023 release Poor Things, which can also be defined as a tour de force with incredible lead actors, Kinds of Kindness is even more so a polarizing work of art that left audiences speechless throughout its release, as
Lanthimos’ cryptic style goes all in, without sparing a single minute of its screentime.
The biggest directorial peculiarity, a signature style of Lanthimos, is the practicality and candidness with which the characters speak. This is further enhanced by the amazing performances of Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone but also the supporting roles of Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau, performed as to give the impression of a surreal puppet show. As with the rest of his films there is no subtlety in the acting, every line is delivered bluntly, and every word is meant. This device works perfectly in allegorical, moral tales, but what happens in these stories is much more complex, thus placing the characters in liminal positions.
The film is structured as an anthology, three stories connected by similar themes, and a few characters connected by their motivations. The three environments are alienating and sterile, spaces in which the characters have apparent freedom and control over their actions but are ultimately pushed to act beyond their moral existence. To be more exact, we have a
man (Plemons), in a conundrum with his boss who is pushing him towards moral degradation; the suspicion of a husband (Plemons) who, upon the return of his wife from a secret mission, believes she has been replaced; and a woman (Stone) who is looking for a special person in order to fulfill
a prophecy for her cult. The sequence of events does not have a clear direction and the endings, including the final one, are as vague as can be. The violence is striking, more so than the love, to the point where love itself is expressed through it, a plausible explanation when put into context
of these themes. The “kinds” presented might not look to be “of kindness”, but of violence, desire, desperation and manipulation.
The film challenges semantically the notions mentioned above, forcing the audience to piece together actions and their meaning, forcing us to solve an impossible puzzle, one perhaps meant to reflect our reality more than to make sense of it. This fits well in the recurring theme of loneliness and desperation in recent films such as All of Us Strangers (2023, Andrew Haigh) and The Worst Person in the World (2021, Joachim Trier). However, compared to them, Kinds of Kindness rips away any kind of possible answer to the chaos, leaving the viewer with an emptiness that almost contradicts any of the purposes of art and especially of film.
In his chaotic vision, Yorgos Lanthimos is defining an entire direction towards which storytelling might be heading, as the modern world gets more confusing and contradictory the more we try to stabilize it.
Cover: Kinds of Kindness, 2024