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KINDS OF KINDNESS (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024)

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  • KINDS OF KINDNESS (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024)

    Yorgos Lanthimos' nearly three hour follow-up to his excellent POOR THINGS certainly doesn't lack for ambition (cinematographer Robbie Ryan returns, again shooting on 35mm film, and Jerskin Fendrix provides another funky score). A triptych of loosely connected tales featuring the same core cast, but all but one, playing a different character in each. Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons, Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley, Mamoudou Athie, and Joe Alwyn are the revolving troupe with Yorgos Stefankos the common thread as the mysterious R.M.F who appears in each segment.

    The first story, “The Death Of RMF” is the strongest. Plemmons is a man with the most possessive boss imaginable in Dafoe's Raymond. It plays almost like an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents as directed by Luis Bunuel – sharing for example, Bunuel's penchant for using repetition and parallels.

    “RMF is Flying” shows a ghoulish reaction to tragedy as Plemmons responds to his wife's apparently miraculous survival on an expedition. Allusions to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Lanthimos' own THE LOBSTER add to the bizarre circumstances. There's a hilarious “home movie” that will change your opinion of such films for some time!

    The finale, “RMF Eats A Sandwich”, posits Dafoe and Chau as the leaders of a cult that Stone and Plemmons are dallying with. Even though it's the longest, it feels the least complete of the trio.

    KINDS OF KINDNESS isn't a traditional anthology film as there are common themes and the unworldly presence of R.M.F. (at one point, those initials were going to be the title of the film). The common themes include dominance, manipulation and self-control. There are multiple allusions to birth/rebirth and fluid sexuality, as well. Plemmons, Stone and Dafoe are the main actors, but the supporting roles are all well played, particularly Qualley and Alwyn. Stone does have a tendency to be a bit mannered and robotic at times, as if a carry over from POOR THINGS' Bella Baxter.

    Lanthimos returns to collaborating on the screenplay here with Efthymis Filippou after working with Tony McNamara on POOR THINGS and THE FAVOURITE (the latter co-written by Deborah Davis). It's a return to Lanthimos' wilder, more unleashed style of his early pictures. For some, that's a good thing, but it does come with a noticeably looser structure and storytelling discipline. The dark humor is there (even if there weren't many laughs in the theater) and Lanthimos certainly gives his actors room to let loose. Which they most certainly do.

    Oh, and Definitely stay tuned for the end credits.


    KINDS OF KINDNESS is currently streaming on Hulu and available for rental. It's on DVD and Blu Ray. Note: POOR THINGS is also on Hulu

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  • #2
    Hope to see this in the theatre this weekend.

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    • #3
      Did this start life a tv series and Yorgos just couldn't be arsed to write the last 3 episodes? Movies broken up into 3 stories, all about 55 minutes long. Definitely feels tv.

      I enjoyed the hell out of it anyway. Watched it twice in one day in fact. The first two stories are definitely stronger than the last. Even at the end of the first two you're still not entirely sure what you've just watched while the third is very contained which makes it less interesting. Still, they've all got at least one amazing moment and the 3rd part has the Emma Stone dance, which I'd obviously seen in trailers etc, but it's so much funnier in context.

      Not only format, this feels like tv in terms of quality too. You don't expect much movies now but these stories could happily sit next to the best episodes of, say, Black Mirror and not feel shame in their company. It's a bit of a slog at 3 hours and I feel it's best viewed in parts, tv style, with a bit of a nap between part 2 and 3.
      "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Dom D View Post
        Did this start life a tv series and Yorgos just couldn't be arsed to write the last 3 episodes? Movies broken up into 3 stories, all about 55 minutes long. Definitely feels tv.
        .
        Never read anything to the effect that this was intended for TV. Lanthimos and his long-time collaborator Filllipou just came up with another of their funky ideas - actually, three of them*, and decided to put it together with "RMN" as the common link (that was to have been the title, too, as I mentioned).


        * they had other story ideas, but these three got selected

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        • #5
          I kind of wish they just fleshed out the first story into a feature instead of this bloated (but interesting) anthology. It was a looooong sit in the theater.

          The only Lanthimos film to date that I've found to be completely satisfying is POOR THINGS. I personally think that he struggles with the second and third acts of his films.
          Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Matt H. View Post
            I kind of wish they just fleshed out the first story into a feature instead of this bloated (but interesting) anthology. It was a looooong sit in the theater.

            The only Lanthimos film to date that I've found to be completely satisfying is POOR THINGS. I personally think that he struggles with the second and third acts of his films.
            I do think THE FAVOURITE works, too. The common link? Screenplays by Tony McNamara.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by JoeS View Post

              I do think THE FAVOURITE works, too. The common link? Screenplays by Tony McNamara.
              Interesting. It's actually the one film of his I have not seen yet, but I plan to.
              Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

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              • #8
                The Favourite was excellent. Hate all the fishbowls lenses and other fripperies but it's a good, dank contemplation of being human. I'm glad I didn't see Kinds Of Kindness in a theatre. I can imagine feeling a sense of dread when the third story started and knowing I have to sit in the same spot for another hour and start a new story. Definitely works best on the couch.
                "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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                • #9
                  The Favourite is my favourite of his (harhar). Dogtooth is effective as well I think.

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