Kinds of Kindness Offers a Bizarre Trio of Tales for Hardcore Lanthimos Fans

Searchlight Pictures, 164 minutes

There isn’t a filmmaker out there making movies similar to Yorgos Lanthimos at the moment. Whether you love his work or hate it (and there seem to be plenty of filmgoers who fall into either category), you’ve got to admit that it’s unique.

Personally, I’ve appreciated a good amount of Lanthimos’ films. I wasn’t a big fan of Poor Things, which is probably his best known and highest regarded movie, but I really enjoyed Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. All three of those movies are co-written by Efthimis Filippou. Since he co-wrote Kinds of Kindness with Lanthimos (and didn’t work on Poor Things), I was very interested to see what the two writers had come up with here.

Colin Farrell in The Lobster — a movie I'd highly recommend.

The movies Lanthimos and Filippou work on together all have the same robotic dialogue and absurdist elements that are distinct to their films. People don’t really speak like they do in these movies, which sort of seem to take place in a bizarre and slightly off version of the real world.

I don’t think that the intentionally wooden speaking style and strange storytelling choices of Lanthimos/Filippou films necessarily have widespread appeal. The humor in Kinds of Kindness is extremely different from the type of humor present in most popular movies and TV shows. I happen to find this absurdist, ridiculous humor funny, but if it’s not to your tastes, steer far clear of Kinds of Kindness. 

As for the stories themselves, they all feature the same actors playing different roles and are very separate from one another. While all are tied together by similar themes, these bizarre stories stand on their own. Feeling-wise, Kinds of Kindness has the feel of three very weird, metaphorical short stories brought to life on the screen.

If there’s one clear strength to the film, it’s the acting. The entire cast does a great job, but Jesse Plemons, particularly in the first two stories, stands out. Plemons has come a long way from his Friday Night Lights days and has established himself as one of the top quality actors today. His performances alone almost make the movie worth watching.

Overall, I liked Kinds of Kindness far less than The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, but still found it to be a worthwhile experience. Those other movies are strange in their own right but feature a more straightforward story that I think balances out well with the strange characters and dialogue. Here, it’s all just super bizarre most of the time. Still, it’s a memorable film, and I appreciate how I never know where Lanthimos is going with these stories.

If you’re a fan of the filmmaker, give Kinds of Kindness a try. It’s not his best work, but if you’re into this sort of artistic, weird type of film, you’ll get something out of it.

Grade: 7/10