Here writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos is working for the first time in a while (since 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer) with co-writer Efthimis Filippou, and it brings a great deal of joy to say Lanthimos has used his mainstream cachet to serve up something singular and vicious. Kinds of Kindness is a weird and merciless experiment in storytelling with a game cast, each (for the most part) playing three different roles and digging into the material with relish and zeal. (Personal faves include Willem Dafoe as a cult leader whose magenta Speedo and salmon pullover will become an in-demand Halloween costume for a very specific kind of moviegoer, Margaret Qualley as a veterinarian and her twin sister, and Emma Stone in all three of her parts, fearless and free as she often shines in her films with Lanthimos.)
This triptych is a cry of frustration and rage against bureaucracy and the idea of God. While the rogue’s gallery of a cast inhabits new characters and specificities, there’s only so far one can reach before crashing against arbitrary limitations and the sick cruelties that others will gladly visit upon us. In the workplace, the contract of marriage and in religion, we’re exploring some dark, dark territory here. This is no surprise to longtime Lanthimos-heads (there are heavy Dogtooth and Killing of a Sacred Deer vibes here), but folks who got on board with his Oscar-winning (dare we say "crossover" material) Poor Things and The Favourite might want to step gingerly. Even though the third segment is the only one explicitly observing the process of religious devotion, the overall vibe feels like 1991’s The Rapture or 1996’s Breaking The Waves — expansive horror films where God is the villain.
The Greek director’s second collaboration with Emma Stone opens this week at the Belcourt
The use of the same troupe of actors playing different parts in each of the three sections works surprisingly well, giving different moral sounding boards to each, finding different facets and allowing a lot of digging deep. Jesse Plemons won the Best Actor award at Cannes for the film, and he gets quite a bit more to do than is often the case in bigger films — in the second section, he goes so monstrous that you don’t even remember his turn in Civil War earlier in the year. And that’s really saying something.
This kind of movie — an uncompromising art film about the unspeakable awfulness lurking just beneath everyone’s skin — doesn’t tend to happen on this scale very often. Part of it is due to Lanthimos’ recent Academy Award acquisitions and Poor Things’ global success, as well as the star power that Emma Stone wields for good. (And not just as an actress; she produced Problemista, The Curse and I Saw the TV Glow all earlier this year.) But thankfully, there are times when Hollywood takes a genuine chance on something scabrous and, well, different. While Kinds of Kindness isn’t quite the home run that 2017’s mother! was, it’s that kind of risk, and it leaves those kinds of scars. And it features one of my favorite three-line performances in anything I’ve seen in a while. This is Lawrence Johnson’s first credited role in something, and I would green-light a spinoff featuring his Chief of Police character in a heartbeat.
