Yorgos Lanthimos delivers a dark, surreal exploration of power and fulfillment, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Bella Baxter, the Frankenstein-like protagonist of Academy Award-winning “Poor Things” played by Oscar-winner Emma Stone, has American first cousins in Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest dream-laden “triptych fable” for our disturbed times. The film, Stone’s third collaboration with Lanthimos, including “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2023), tells three interlinked, notably bizarre tales featuring the same cast of actors in different hall-of-mirrors roles.
Shot in and around New Orleans, the film opens with “The Death of R.M.F.,” a story of a young man named Robert (Jesse Plemons, “Killers of the Flower Moon”), who lives a life of affluence and comfort, although in complete thrall to the mysterious, all-powerful Raymond (Willem Dafoe, the mad scientist of “Poor Things”). Raymond has supplied Robert and his wife Sarah (Oscar nominee Hong Chau, “The Whale”) with all the trappings of success. But in exchange, he demands complete servility. After a failed attempt to fulfill Raymond’s wishes, Robert is summoned to Raymond’s office for a dressing down. The story also boasts Margaret Qualley (“Drive-Away Dolls”) as Raymond’s much younger housemate Vivian. Stone appears in this story as a temptress named Rita, who appears to take Robert’s place in Raymond’s affections. The story might be described as a modern moral tale.
In the second installment, “R.M.F. Is Flying,” Plemons is Daniel, a police officer, who comes to believe that his wife Liz (Stone), with whom he shares a swingers’ lifestyle with a young couple played by Qualley and Mamoudou Athie, and who has been stranded on an island, has been replaced by some evil doppelganger. The final third installment, “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” is the story of Emily (Stone), a member of a bizarre sect headed by— Who else?—Dafoe’s sex guru Omi. After being drugged and raped by her ex-husband (Taylor Swift’s ex, Joe Alwyn, “Mary Queen of Scots”), Emily is declared “contaminated” by a sect leader (Chou) and not allowed back on the sect’s compound.
All of the tales are waking dreams, featuring Jerskin Fendrix-composed piano chords and notes recalling the Gyorgy Ligeti music in Stanley Kubrick’s valedictorian “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999) with the addition of spooky choral voices. I cannot emphasize enough what an integral part Jerskin’s score plays in the nearly three-hour film’s untethering, disorienting impact.
Also in the wack-a-doodle mix are The Eurythmics 1983 hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” copies of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” another tale of enthrallment, a tennis racket smashed by John McEnroe in 1984 and a purple Dodge Challenger that Stone’s Emily handles like a stunt driver. Stone’s absurdly fruitful artistic partnership with Lanthimos has earned her three Academy Award nominations (and a Best Actress win for “Poor Things”) and five Oscar nominations for him.
Raising the dead is once again a Lanthimos theme here. Cannibalism rears its gory head. Yorgos Stafanakos, who plays R.M.F., a character identified by his monogrammed shirt, bears a resemblance to Kubrick, and, notably, “Kinds of Kindness,” which Lanthimos co-wrote with Efthimis Filippou of “Dogtooth” and “The Lobster,” displays a distinctly Kubrickian iciness towards its characters, who might all be described using the “King Lear” line about being “like flies to wanton boys.” With a Jonathan Swift-like flourish, Lanthimos envisions a world ruled by dogs. “Kinds of Kindness” lacks the narrative through-line of “Poor Things,” the tale of Bella Baxter’s sexual and spiritual awakening. But with its controlling corporate master, cult members, swingers, attempted Lazarus-like resurrections, body snatchers, and lunatic driver, “Kinds of Kindness “ is a pitch-black meditation upon America by one of the world’s most stylish surrealists. We’re not in Kansas anymore. Or are we?
‘Kinds of Kindness’
Rating: R for strong/disturbing violent content, strong sexual content, full nudity, and language.
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
Running time: 144 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters Friday
Grade: A-
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