When you sit down to watch a film from writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Lobster) there are a few things you can expect. The first thing you’ll notice (and possibly my favorite thing) is a very specific and slightly off-putting way each of the characters speak. The dialogue in his films is written in such a way that everything is a little under-cooked but no feeling or meaning is lost. Everyone speaks without a filter, every syllable is important, and every line is either full of subtext or designed to make you scratch your head. Kinds Of Kindness is no different in that respect. I found myself scratching my head a lot.
The second thing you’ll pick up on, if you’ve watched more than one of his films, is an equally specific (and again slightly off-putting) visual style. Yorgos‘ movies are absolutely gorgeous even if sometimes you wish you could look away due to whatever strange or unsavory thing he has decided to show us. There was more than one occasion during this film for instance that I was very uncomfortable but at the same time unable to take my eyes away from the screen. There was a kissing scene (and kissing scenes are fine, I’m no prude) but he decided to shoot it in an extreme close-up, all lips and tongue. Not a brief shot, we lingered there. Then we lingered a bit longer until it eventually became uncomfortable. Did he decide in that moment to cut to something else? No, he made us stay with it a while more before he gave us relief. That’s Yorgos though, he never compromises for comfort.
A cast of characters
There are a few directors out there who always seem to be loyal to the actors they have worked with in the past. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese immediately spring to mind but Yorgos Lanthimos is no different. This film is full of players he has worked with in the past like Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe (both from Poor Things) but he also introduces some new faces, new to his films anyway. Jesse Plemons turns in three very different and very effective performances and has already signed on to the next Yorgos story. Some of the other new faces include Hong Chau (Watchmen) and Mamoudou Athie from Black Box and Sorry For Your Loss. Each member of the cast was asked to play more than one character and everyone pulled it off beautifully.
The standouts for me were of course Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone who find themselves at the center of all three stories in one way or the other. Both turned in amazing performances in a movie that was essentially three short films in a trench coat. They weren’t connected in any way, just a triple feature of shorts that made no apologies. Both Jesse and Emma gave us fully realized and very different characters for each. Of course a lot of that comes down to the writing but also Yorgos trusted them to bring his words to life and they nailed it.
I couldn’t move on without mentioning Willem Dafoe. I don’t know what one can say about Willem Dafoe that hasn’t already been written a million times about a million different performances but the trio of characters he plays with in this are something to behold. From a very strange billionaire who enjoys taking care of people as long as they do exactly as he says and wishes, including what they eat and when they are allowed to be intimate with their spouses, to the leader of a strange sex cult who is looking for a set of twins (one of which has to be alive and the other dead, the alive one of course having special healing powers) he was perfection.
Their feet are bigger and softer for some reason
Kinds Of Kindness was both written and directed, as usual, by Yorgos Lanthimos. The first film of his I came across was Poor Things and I thought, what a strange and unusual filmmaker, I must see everything! So I did. I took the next couple of days to burn through his catalog with films such as The Lobster and The Killing Of The Sacred Deer. All very different, all containing one hundred percent his singular odd vision. All films that could not have been made by any other filmmaker. Kinds of Kindness was no different in that it was very different from his other films but no other combination of writer and director could have pulled it off. This was very much a movie only he could do. It was smart and funny, it was uncomfortable, it was moving, it was confusing. It was beautiful.
Yorgos has a way of staying just a little too long in a scene to really drive home his point. When he wants to make you squirm, he will do it with ease. If he wants to make you sad, he will make you sad. This film was a perfect example of a master storyteller at the height of his craft, having fun and pulling no punches. The cinematography was stunning, the use of light and the framing made each shot its own painting. The score was just strange enough to change the mood of a scene with only the tinkering of one or two piano keys. Everything was done on purpose and highly effective.
The verdict
Kinds of Kindness was a film that I was looking forward to from the moment that I heard about it. I fell in love with this filmmakers work and this, much like the rest of his filmography, didn’t disappoint. At times the movie is confusing but it all comes out in the wash as they say because he never leaves you with too many unanswered questions. The important things are explained. It is hard to watch at other times, whether it’s a close up of someone losing a thumb (by their own choice) or a character having an extremely awkward encounter with another, but never to the point where you want to look away completely. It’s a fine line that Yorgos walks and no one does it quite like he does.
If you like any or all of his other films, this is one that you can’t miss. If you haven’t seen any of his other films, this is a good place to start then work yourself backwards. Like I said, Kinds Of Kindness is essentially three short films in a trench coat so by the end you will have a very good idea of what to expect from the others. Personally I thought it was fantastic and can hardly wait to watch it again when I force my friends to see it. It really shouldn’t be missed.
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