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Kinds of Kindness Movie Review

Kinds of Kindness is a 2024 anthology film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Emma Stone. It’s a very bad movie.

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“Not everyone is cut out for everything“

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Three stories in this triptych revolve around a man who tries to take control of his own life, a policeman whose wife seems like a different person, and a woman who searches for someone with a special ability. I am not a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos, but I did really like ‘Poor Things’. That is where he finally developed a meaningful plot and strong characters along with his signature artistic weirdness. It’s a shame, then, that he quickly returned to his trademark style for this movie. It’s not as horrible as ‘Dogtooth’, but it’s still a pointless, insufferable watch.

None of the three stories appealed to me in the slightest. The first one was overly cold and misanthropic. The second story was the most sexually deranged and provocative one, but not in a fun way. The third story worked the least of the three given that it was overly complicated, chaotic and cluttered with too many different ingredients that didn’t work well together.

Jesse Plemons is always great and he was excellent here too. He is by far the only reason to see this movie. Others didn’t impress me in the slightest. Emma Stone’s roles here were a far cry from Bella Baxter. She was fine, but thoroughly forgettable. The same goes for Willem Dafoe, who was typecast and quite boring in this flick. Hong Chau was also wasted herself.

Kinds of Kindness also lacked the technical majesty of the director’s previous work. This is because it was filmed during the post-production of that film, so it was shot on a tight budget and it shows. The editing and cinematography are very good, but the overall production design, score and other aspects are too minimalist.

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The movie has some interesting dialogue, but for the most part this is Lanthimos exhibiting his worst traits – his misanthropy, bitterness, coldness and an utter lack of humanity. None of the characters are interesting or likable and it’s difficult to care for any of them. Thematically, the three segments are well connected – the movie explores how toxic and sacrificial our relationships can be. But in only focusing on the worst aspects of human connection, the movie became too nihilist and just plain unrealistic.