By Seth Lukas Hynes
Kinds of Kindness
Starring Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Emma Stone
Rated MA15+
4.25/5
The latest film from Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos, Kinds of Kindness is one of the most enthralling, unsettling and confidently-crafted films of the year.
Like a dark cousin of Wes Anderson’s Henry Sugar anthology, Kinds of Kindness consists of three short films sharing the core cast of Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone, Hong Chau and Margaret Qualley.
These shorts are linked by nihilism, superb tension, black-and-white dreams and distinctly unkind themes of obsession and abuse.
In the taut first short, The Death of R.M.F. Robert (Plemons) faces an impossible task from his domineering boss Raymond (Dafoe).
The acting has a very deliberate, almost stilted feel, which generates a stifling atmosphere of constant performance to please Raymond, who micromanages his employees’ lives.
Plemons is riveting as a pathetic dynamo of desperation, and the discordant piano score, played by Raymond’s lover Vivian (Qualley), suggests that Robert can never escape Raymond’s plans.
In the viscerally disturbing second short, R.M.F. is Flying, Daniel’s (Plemons) wife Liz (Stone) returns home after being lost at sea, but Daniel is certain she is an impostor.
This harrowing short does an amazing job of inverting our perspective: we are initially suspicious of the blunt, changed Liz, but come to detest Daniel as he rebukes and tests her in cruel ways.
Whether Liz is real or not, it’s clear Daniel doesn’t deserve her.
Lanthimos runs slightly astray with R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich, the quirkier third short, in which the cultist Emily (Stone) searches for someone who can raise the dead.
This short is confronting yet often darkly hilarious, but feels mean-spirited in a less motivated way than the other shorts.
Make no mistake: Kinds of Kindness is a feel-bad movie, but a surreal, fascinating feel-bad movie playing in select Victorian cinemas.
