Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) treats us to three macabre stories about all the things people will do to secure love and attention. Starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Jesse Plemons, winner of the Best Actor prize in Cannes.
KINDS OF KINDNESS is a triptych in which the lead actors play a different character each time. Because the actors do not look substantially different, the suggestion is created that the stories are connected. But there is much more cohesion in the underlying themes: love, faith and control over others.
The first part is about Robert, who has to do exactly what his boss Raymond dictates: what to wear, what he orders in a café and even when he has sex with his wife. In the second part, we see Daniel, a police officer, whose wife Liz has gone missing during a scientific expedition. When she turns up again, Daniel becomes suspicious – he thinks she is a double of his wife. In the final part, Liz – who drives around in a purple sports car – joins a cult and is ordered by a sex-crazed guru to find someone who has the gift of bringing the dead back to life.
With this nearly three-hour triptych, Lanthimos returns to the absurdism of his earlier Greek work: strange stories that form both an enigmatic puzzle and a fascinating exploration of our psychological drives – all masterfully acted. (bw)