I went into Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness blindly. All I knew was that it was from the director of The Favourite and Poor Things, one of which I liked, the other I found too disturbing to enjoy. Reteaming the visionary director with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, Kinds of Kindness instantly draws in fans of Poor Things. While it’s far less disturbing than that film, it subjects the audience to a similar mix of dark comedy and morality parable.
A trio of thematically adjacent short films using the same cast of actors, the oddity of Kinds of Kindness starts with the titles of each story: “The Death of R.M.F.,” “R.M.F. is Flying,” and “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich.” R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos) is the lone recurring character throughout the shorts, essentially three walk-on cameo appearances that hold little-to-no significance to the plot of each. It’s part of Lanthimos’ quirky humor in this strange universe. More fitting titles would’ve been “Do As I Say,” “Changeling,” and “The Chosen One,” but the disconnect between episode titles and the nature of each film is part of the package feature’s point.
The themes of each film deal with power and submission. These concepts are first explored in “The Death of R.M.F.” (“Do As I Say”), in which we meet a man named Robert (Jesse Plemons) whose entire life is controlled by his employer, Raymond (Willem Dafoe). When Robert pushes back a tiny bit, his life spirals out of control. In “R.M.F. is Flying” (“Changeling”), Jesse Plemons plays Daniel, a police officer whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) went missing during a work trip gone wrong. When “Liz” returns, Daniel is convinced this isn’t the woman he married, literally. And in “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” (“The Chosen One”), Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons play agents Emily and Andrew searching for the messiah who can bring about the end of a contamination that is plaguing the world. With a prophecy from Omi (Willem Dafoe), they set off in search of a woman who meets their leader’s exact specifications.
One of the reasons I found Poor Things hard to get through was its graphic nature, particularly its gore through medical procedures. The second short in Kinds of Kindness had a similar effect on me, albeit to a much smaller degree. Also carried forward from both Poor Things and The Favourite is the use of outlandish sexual situations for shock value and comedy.
Kinds of Kindness succeeds in its goal of making viewers question power, submission, and their place in the world. While the title of each story leads viewers to presume that R.M.F. is significant, the confusion is meant to elicit your engagement. You can’t passively watch Kinds of Kindness without missing its critical message. The film lacks the grandiose nature of The Favourite and Poor Things, settling for a visual language that feels far more independent than Lanthimos’ most famous work, but it somewhat regains that quality through another odd score from Jerskin Fendrix, who delights in having a chorus join the power struggle depicted on screen. With a heavyweight cast delivering a trio of incredible performances, Kinds of Kindness has the makings of another awards season darling, although it’s far less commercial than fans of Yorgos Lanthimos’ most recent work are likely expecting.
I give Kinds of Kindness 4 out of 5 stars.
Kinds of Kindness is now playing in select theaters.