Kinds of Kindness

Just a few months after Poor Things swept the Oscars, Yorgos Lanthimos’s next feature is waiting in the wings, ready to be unleashed upon the foaming-mouthed public. The Greek auteur reunites with his longstanding writing partner Efthymis Filippou for Kinds of Kindness, marking his first project with a script of his own creation since The Killing of a Sacred Deer – which should serve as a heads-up to fans of his recent, more readily accessible work

Featuring the same core cast in different roles – Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Joe Alwyn – the film is made up of three chapters, each independent from the others. The stories themselves are rather intricate and parabolic, with a number of common themes emerge: dreams, control, subjugation and procreation.

Even as the depicted events challenge viewers to form their own interpretations, this director excels like few others in remaining wholly entertaining amidst potential confusion and unsettlement.

The performances are a true masterclass in versatility. In particular, Plemons, whom audiences are less accustomed to seeing as a leading man, delivers a stunning transformation from an average Joe to a pathetic loser, then to a complete oddball and needy dog, all within less than three hours.

The film’s soundtrack consists of a well-balanced juxtaposition of pop and rock music, including Eurythmics’s Sweet Dreams, which features already in the teaser trailer, along with screeching piano chords that underscore the uncanny atmosphere of each segment.

Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is relatively straightforward, eschewing many of Lanthimos’s usual quirks. However, the occasional tracking shots and low-angle framing of faces still pack a punch in rattling audiences.

Kinds of Kindness is likely to be as divisive as Megalopolis upon its general release, but its originality is precisely what cinema desperately needs in times like these.

Selina Sondermann

Kinds of Kindness is released nationwide on 28^th June 2024.

Watch the trailer for Kinds of Kindness here: