CANNES – To be perfectly honest, we didn’t expect it would be so difficult to collect our thoughts regarding Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.” A world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, this isn’t the first anthology film we’ve reviewed in our career, let alone one with an unconventional structure. Perhaps our hesitation is that we’re still rattled by what Lanthimos and longtime screenwriting collaborator Efthimis Filippo hope to provoke with three tales of people yearning for control and the excess of such constraints. This is a movie that harkens back to themes prevalent in the Greek filmmaker’s earlier work, such as 2009’s “Dogtooth” or 2017’s “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer.” Yet, we’re almost (emphasis on “almost”) at a loss to discuss why it left such an indelible impression on us. And we’re rarely at a loss for words, let alone opinions.
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Divided into three separate chapters, the stories are intertwined thematically and by the same actors playing different characters in each tale. That includes a tangential figure with the initials R.M.F., who appears briefly throughout the movie. There are also some minor connective tissue such as the same distinct shade of purple used on a turtleneck in one chapter and as a sportscar’s paint job in another. Or the fact the entire movie was shot in the vicinity of New Orleans. All that aside, the complete film is a haunting portrait of humanity and a massive spotlight for the talents of Jesse Plemons and Lanthimos’ now frequent collaborator, Emma Stone.
The first tale, “THE DEATH OF R.M.F.,” finds Plemons in what can only be described as a twisted Dom/Sub relationship with his boss, played by Willem Dafoe (stellar as always). The second chapter, “R.M.F. IS FLYING,” sees Plemons as a police officer experiencing a mental breakdown when his wife, portrayed by Stone, returns after being marooned on a deserted island for weeks. The final installment, “R.M.F. EATS A SANDWICH,” gives Stone the keys to that aforementioned slick ride as a cult member tasked with finding a woman who has been prophesized to have the power to raise the dead.
The collective work paints a portrait of filmmakers fascinated by the power we let others have over us and the individuals who prefer to abandon their free will (or think that’s what they want). In “THE DEATH OF R.M.F.,” Robert (Plemmons) is unable to fulfill his bosses’ dangerous request. After failing him, Raymond (Dafoe) dramatically ends their relationship, and Robert is suddenly unable to function in the real world. There is a minor sexual component that is casually referenced, but Robert is married to a woman, Sarah (Hong Chau). Someone completely unaware she was handpicked for him by Raymond in the first place. Robert has to decide how far he’ll go to experience that inner peace he felt under Raymond’s control again.
In “R.M.F. IS FLYING,” Daniel (Plemmons) has been acting strangely since his wife, Liz (Stone), disappeared at sea with her colleagues. When she returns, Daniel begins to suspect she’s not really Liz but some other person or entity pretending to be her. Even under prescribed medication (and he needs it), Daniel begins to exert a new authority over Liz, which is a horrifying change to their dynamic. And Liz, looking to satisfy her husband and bring some normalcy back to their world, has to decide if she’ll fulfill the extreme requests he’s made of her. Out of all the scenarios the film explores, this is arguably the darkest.
As good as her reputation in the first two chapters, Stone is absolutely sensational in “R.M.F. EATS A SANDWICH.” The final tale finds her portraying Emily, a woman who has left her husband, Andrew (Joe Alwyn), and daughter behind to join a cult led by the charismatic Omi (Dafoe) and cold-hearted Aka (Chau). Her anointed mission to find a resurrecting angel hiding in plain sight allows both she and another member, Andrew (Plemons), to leave the organization’s lakeside compound and have somewhat free reign from the cult. Their search increasingly puts them in the vicinity of her old life, and when she runs into her former family, the push and pull between those two worlds puts her sanity at risk. Things get more complicated when she learns that a set of twins (a perfectly cast Margaret Qualley) could be a key to her search and the means to keeping cult leader Omi happy with her.
Plemons has the least to do in “FLYING,” but like Stone (and Dafoe), his ability to fashion three distinct characters with a change of garb and increasingly shorter hairstyles is a testament to his talent. Granted, he also appears to have experienced a personal physical transformation during the shoot which assists in this effort, but as with his recent work in “The Power Of The Dog” and “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” he’s utterly captivating every moment he’s on screen. Even if “Kinds” doesn’t speak to you, the film is a spectacular case study for anyone who needs more evidence that Plemons deserves more leading roles on the big screen.
Along with the actors’ collective efforts (Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer are also noteworthy in smaller roles), “Kinds” stands as another compelling work from an auteur willing to push buttons and make daring choices. And, yes, there are hints of the whimsical and comedic tone of “The Favourite” or “Poor Things” in Lanthimios’ latest effort, but for the most part, “Kinds” is a surreal tale on the fringes of conventional reality. A deceptively dense piece of work filled with moments that articulate the complexity of the human condition. You may laugh here or there, but you’ll be thinking more about the choices these characters take and the inherent pain they endure much longer than Stone’s celebratory dancing in a parking lot. Not that we’ll ever complain about dancing or dogs in a Lanthimos movie. [B+]
“Kinds of Kindness” opens in limited release on June 21.