Kinds of Kindness: Lanthimos returns with three tales of violence, cruelty, distrust and control

Actors Willem Dafoe and Emma Stone and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos arrive for the screening of the film 'Kinds of Kindness' at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday. Picture: Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images

• Kinds of Kindness
•  ★★★
• Cannes review

Yorgos Lanthimos is back mere months after the raging success of his Oscar-winning fantasy comedy Poor Things, and with mostly positive results.

His latest, Kinds of Kindness, does not just reunite the Greek director with muse Emma Stone as well as a host of other entertaining character actors like Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Hong Chau, but also sees him working with screenwriter Efthimis Fillipou for the first time since 2017’s Killing of a Sacred Deer.

It very much finds Lanthimos back in his "comfort zone". His comfort zone, of course, is putting his audience in the discomfort zone. What a morbid sense of humour he has.

A triptych macabre fable, Kinds of Kindness takes a nihilistic approach with its tales of violence, cruelty, distrust and control. It is exactly what you expect from Lanthimos, the darkest of comedies. Much like in his early works — Dogtooth, The Lobster, and Killing of a Sacred Deer — Lanthimos’ seems to take great joy in torturing his characters.

The first tale, 'The Death of R.M.F.', follows corporate lackey Robert (Plemons) as he attempts to wrestle his own autonomy back from his boss (Dafoe) who controls every aspects of his life. 

Emma Stone in 'Kinds of Kindness'

The second is '“R.M.F. is Flying', in which Daniel (Plemons again) suspects his wife, who has returned from being stranded on a desert island, is an imposter. 

Lanthimos leaves the best until last though with 'R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich', in which Stone and Plemons portray cult members hunting for someone to resurrect the dead for their leaders.

At the forefront each story, Stone and Plemons — being the endlessly talented professionals that they are — convincingly embody the pain and suffering of each character.

Where Kinds of Kindness wobbles a little is simply with its anthological structure. The final part ('R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich') is the most engaging for me, ending the film on a high note, but I had to wait nearly two hours until I found myself fully engaged in the storyline.

That’s the risk directors take when releasing an anthology in theatres. I have a suspicion that Kinds of Kindness will do best on streaming where audiences can watch a story then pause to digest and ruminate.

Either way, it's good to have the cruel Yorgos back — after his two major Oscar-winning hits in The Favourite and Poor Things, the Greek maestro is back where he belongs.