“Kinds of Kindness” is a movie directed by Yorgos Lanthimos starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe. With Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie.
The ever-ingenious Yorgos Lanthimos returns to the cinematic arena, accompanied by his muses, actress Emma Stone and actor Willem Dafoe, to once again defy the norms, provoke the audience, and present us with a feast for the senses on both aesthetic and narrative fronts.
This film is constructed like a disassembled jigsaw puzzle, leaving it to the audience to piece together the chaotic fragments of characters from a collective psyche that seems to lack self-awareness. “Kinds of Kindness” is not an easy watch and certainly isn’t tailored for everyone. It demands viewers to abandon conventional narrative expectations and embrace the notion that the natural coherence of cinema can be entirely inverted and turned on its head.
Seemingly without rhyme or reason, the film aims to engage the viewer, inviting them into an aesthetically pleasing whirlwind of madness.
!["Kinds of Kindness" - Film review: A bold, intellectual, humorous, dramatic, and terrifying challenge to traditional storytelling Kinds of Kindness](https://cdn.martincid.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MV5BMTBkOGExNGItMTRiNC00ZTZiLWI0Y2ItNWY0NjdhMmM5ODMwXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_-1024x683.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
About the film
I will attempt to outline the primary threads without spoiling the experience: the characters morph through a fluid storyline that, at various times, can be a drama, a horror film, a comedy, or a gripping thriller. Characters can transition from practicing cannibalism to exhibiting tenderness and even romance. As their unique tales and histories take on different forms, everything changes, everything flows in a film that narrates three distinct stories featuring the same actors portraying three different characters in three situations that, while similar, are entirely dissimilar.
Amidst all this: the gateways to fantasy, mystery, horror, and the very essence of human comedy.
!["Kinds of Kindness" - Film review: A bold, intellectual, humorous, dramatic, and terrifying challenge to traditional storytelling Kinds of Kindness](https://cdn.martincid.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MV5BMTgzY2RiNmUtM2NiZi00YjA0LTkwZTMtZjQ1ODBiZmQ5MzllXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUwMTE1ODAx._V1_-1024x429.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1)
Our opinion
An open invitation to the aesthetic and psychic subconscious. A formidable challenge to the viewer and, undoubtedly, a sophisticated provocation from a master provocateur: Yorgos Lanthimos.