Kinds of Kindness

When I'd heard Yorgos Lanthimos was already releasing a follow up to his 2023 critical darling, Poor Things, I was surprised. It was in the midst of that film's Oscar campaign, but I figured, "Maybe he just had this one sitting on the backburner?"

As you may remember, I liked Poor Things a lot (#9 Best Film of 2023). I appreciated it's absurdity (though it could go too far), the world and visuals were memorable, its music similarly so, and Emma Stone's portrayal of Bella Baxter was incredible. Along with it, it had a [mostly] fun sense of humor, complimented by some expert delivery from Stone and Ruffalo. It's not a film for everyone, but for me it was the right level of "weird" that bolstered a story, without trying to take it over.

Catching up with Kinds of Kindness was an incredibly disappointing experience, though one I'm thankful to have skipped in theaters and waited until it hit streaming (it's now on Hulu). 

Told across 3 separate, ~1 hour long stories, Kinds of Kindness is a slog and while there are elements I'd normally praise, this is such a misfire for me, I have a hard time even doing that. It's shocking that the same director of something weirdly innovative as Poor Things, created this Black-Mirror-esque trio of fables and somehow managed to make it so annoyingly dull and arthouse-weird. Granted, Yorgos is partly responsible for writing Kinds of Kindness whereas he didn't write any of Poor Things, so perhaps that's a partial explanation. I know that this "film" (I struggle to even really call it that as it's basically binge watching 3 hours of TV) has reviews all over the place. Good for the people that enjoyed it, I guess. I imagine there's those that want to write dissertations about how these stories are connected, what each one symbolizes, etc. etc. etc. For me? That would be nearly as much of a waste of time as this movie. 

The lack of a central narrative across the 3 hours is taxing, even when I was able to break up viewings throughout a busy work week. I'd finish one "episode" and by the third one, almost let out an audible sigh to continue with the final hour. These stories and worlds are based in reality, though weird in ways that are frustratingly never explained in a satisfying way. There's so much left without explanation that it goes from feeling like I should just "roll with it" to something simply being weird for the sake of it (aka the aforementioned "arthouse weird" description). I'm a big fan of weird in movies when it's well earned, has some reasoning, and adds to the film, but I detest when a film is weird just for the sake of it. Kinds of Kindness is that sort of film. What's worse is that it could have at least counteracted that with interesting characters or stories, but the stories are so disengaging and the characters so...cold, that I was never compelled in any way. 

If I had to cite a positive, it would largely be around the performances. Jesse Plemons does heavy lifting in three separate and mostly different roles, followed by Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe. They're complimented by a cast that has much smaller roles, so there is some interest in seeing those three performers have to switch up their approach, demeanor, etc. and do the most that they can with these scripts. 

Once I found out what Kinds of Kindness was back when it first released, I managed my expectations. They weren't high, but I figured I would at least find a couple stories to enjoy. This managed to disappoint me in surprising ways, which is unfortunate given how much I enjoyed Lanthimos' 2023 gem. Kinds of Kindness is not worth your time, even streaming for free. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 3.5/10