Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer
Certificate: 18
Run Time: 164 mins

Kinds of Kindness is the new film by Yorgos Lanthimos, hot on the heels of Poor Things. Although it may seem as if Lanthimos has been uncommonly busy, Kinds of Kindness was actually shot before his Oscar-winning darling and it’s an entirely different beast in almost every way. 

An absurdist triptych, Kinds of Kindness sees Lanthimos on scripting duties with Efthimis Filippou in their first collaboration since The Killing of a Sacred Deer (in my opinion, Lanthimos’ best film). On both The Favourite and Poor Things, Lanthimos didn’t have a hand in the script and you could tell – Lanthimos and Filippou’s scripts all have an arch quality to them, and is what makes them so great. 

Kinds of Kindness is a thrillingly cold-hearted triptych with a razor dry sense of humour which only Lanthimos could have accomplished and represents the director at his most daring. As with any anthology film though, certain stories resonated with me more than others and the first one’s the best for me, because Jesse Plemons carries the emotional spiralling descent so chillingly. 

While it may lack the sheer horror of The Killing of a Sacred Deer’s final act, this has all the surrealist elements and uncomfortable feeling of The Lobster and Dogtooth. There’s certainly a lot going on in Kinds of Kindness and even if some elements don’t seem to be fully fleshed out, it’s a fascinating film. Conversations about what ties the stories together are likely to only end in frustration.

The cast are all at the top of the game but Jesse Plemons is sensational, particularly the first two stories where he has the lead role and it may just be career-best work. Emma Stone is also very strong, particularly when she takes the lead in the third and somewhat frustrating fable and Willem Dafoe’s reliably excellent, with the same lilt he has in Poor Things.    

Jerskin Fendrix’s score is very fitting and full of portent and cinematographer Robbie Ryan captures the neon glitz of Los Angeles but he’s not given as much an opportunity to really push the boat like he did with the memorable fish-eye lens of Poor Things. 

Kinds of Kindness is a fascinating film in Lanthimos’ catalogue and in many ways, feels like a return to his past which is his strongest period. This has all the eerie strangeness and uncomfortable feeling of his best works, backed up by committed and memorable performances across the board.