Kinds of Kindness review

 

After the success of Poor Things earlier this year in what is arguably one of if not my favorite movie of 2024 thus far Director Yargos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone for a trippy, mind bending triptych of stories. Each told in it's own unique manner with all actors portraying different characters in each story. Right off the bat I got to say that Kinds of Kindess is a lot to take in and digest. It's really beefy and full of dark, twisted humour and images. At times it's kind of like what is even happening here while others it's genuinely funny. That's not to say everything is great here because it isn't as each story tries almost too hard to be upfront and direct with a strange under belly lurking beneath it all. 

The cast are fantastic throughout from Emma Stone to Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley to Jesse Plemons who is just brilliant here in all three of his roles. In true Yargos Lanthimos it's full of vulgar language and a lot of nudity and sex. In those aspects it's very like Poor Things where some scenes of a sexual nature dragged things down a bit as they're too frequent aand too absurd. All 3 stories range from having to deal with a demanding boss to thinking your spouse is some sort of alien like creature to a cult who can't stand the idea of someone giving birth to life. It's all pretty out there and will definitely not be for everyones taste.

Kinds of Kindess chugs along at a brisk enough pace, it's quite long however clocking in at almost 3 hours so in a sense it's like an hour per story which is fine I've no problem with that. The problems lie in the excessive nudity and sexual communication. Not to mention a score that features this piano track that just feels like someone is constantly pressing different keys to try and create something eerie and atmospheric. It worked in Poor Things because of the character and setting but here it's distracting and hard to listen to almost 2 hours in. Kinds of Kindness isn't bad by any means. For an anthlogy movie it's quite good infact. The acting is great as I've said but overall I dunno it just didn't come quite together for me in what was packed theater screening. Strap in for a storytelling adventure unlike anything else this year. 

★★★