Kinds of Kindness Review: Yorgos Lanthimos’ Triptych Fable Overstays Its Welcome

   September 1, 2024

As a side project conceived during the creation of Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness is quite the undertaking for Yorgos Lanthimos. The movie is hefty and left with a lot of gristle. While the performances of the cast suggest a film trying to have a lot of fun, the lack of cohesion took me out of a movie overstaying its welcome.

Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Kinds of Kindness (2024), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Kinds of Kindness is a self-proclaimed “triptych fable” that explores the human connection to our own wants and needs, and the lengths we go to in order to control our own lives. Sprawling in both execution and intent, Yorgos Lanthimos’ episodic follow-up to Poor Things aims high, but doesn’t have the bite to land the knockout punch.

And it’s not for a lack of effort as the ensemble cast of seasoned Hollywood actors and actresses – headlined by the likes of Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley – each contribute to this undeniably singular and operatic art piece. The cast is quite similar to that of Poor Things as Kinds of Kindness was created from the free time available during the creation of the Oscar nominated movie.

And Kinds of Kindness mostly feels like just that – a scattered shotgun blast of ideas and narratives that never really earn their keep or justify their own existence. Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster) has earned the title of an experimental auteur capable of appealing to wider audiences, but this mix of unapologetically awkward and stilted storytelling sputters out before it ever gets going.

The three stories loosely follow this structure – 1.) a businessman (Plemons) takes control of his own life from the domineering man (Dafoe) he calls his boss, 2.) a policeman (Plemons) notices strange changes in his wife (Stone) when she returns from being missing at sea, and 3.) a man and woman (this time, Plemons and Stone) search for a woman with a specific special ability.

Perhaps the most unique piece of Kinds of Kindness is that Lanthimos recycles his performers for each story, turning Plemons and Stone (and others) into malleable brushes that paint finer strokes with each passing story. The physicality of each actor is felt as they take on new roles with different demands.

But there’s a fine line between being odd with a story to tell and a clear vision and being weird for the sake of it. Kinds of Kindness often ventures into the latter without providing stability or buy-in to match. If you can track with it, great(!), but if you can’t, it’s a nearly 3-hour indescribable slog that accomplishes little compared to his tighter releases.

I did like to see Yorgos Lanthimos return to a more modern setting. It takes the attention off of the set design and allows Lanthimos to write with a different tone. The movie often works best when operating in high-end infrastructure and with Emma Stone’s sick ride in the third story. It’s a change-of-pace that I hope the acclaimed writer and director works within moving forward.

As a side project conceived during the creation of a better, more accomplished movie, Kinds of Kindness is quite the undertaking. It’s hefty and left with a lot of gristle. While the performances of the cast suggest a movie trying to have a lot of fun, the lack of cohesion took me out of a movie overstaying its welcome.

Rating: 5/10

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

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