No assembly RequireD

Fables like to lie to us. A fictitious retelling, we were given them as children and then studied them as we got older but one thing they have always shown us it that the lessons they appear to teach us often do not have the answers either. Instead fables are just a way of looking in from the outside and often for pure entertainment. The lessons they were meant to teach were sometimes scare factors hidden behind cute farm animals. For Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film KINDS OF KINDNESS the Greek director takes his cynical viewpoint and assemblies a motley crew of performers only to put them through a ring of suffering for our enjoyment. The director took a nice detour through period films ‘The Favourite” and “Poor Things” and while both great in their own way, the two of them seemed to steer slightly away from the more bizarre and unsettling outcomes of life and death that harbored much of Lanthimos’ early works. With KINDNESS he reunites with fellow scribe Efthimis Filippou (who co wrote four features with Lanthimos including Dogtooth and The Lobster) to bring forth a triptych tale of death, regret, sex and all around human suffering. Anyone familiar with Lanthimos’ work knows that even with just topics of pain there is non-stop deadpan hilarity throughout. In fact at this point in his career this ss of humor has become synonymous with Lanthimos but even better the director is still able to bring out the unexpected both to shock you as well as remind you that life and whoever is running it has the sickest sense of humor.

KINDS OF KINDNESS feels like the most indebted of Lanthimos’ work to Greek theater performance. Yes in terms of themes but even more so the film is divided into three separate (or so it seems) stories where its cast all returns but performing different roles. Its less a gimmick of the film and more an enjoyable way to attend a theater like movie that thankfully never is performed in stage like manner. No even shot on a ‘lower” budget and filmed during the endless post-production of his epic “Poor Things,” KIND OF KINDNESS has all the makings of a grand film as Yorgos brings us to an unnamed city (shot fully in New Orleans) to show us everyday life of three very different sets of not everyday people. With each section being performed there is a sense of being back in high school in the drama program watching as the same student gets the lead in both the fall and spring musical, but you know what they often deserved the role, pettiness aside. In this case Jesse Plemons, one of the best actors working today, is given the chance to take the reins in three roles perfectly demonstrating how grand he can be one minute and subdued the next. Plemons finds himself playing in one moment a man who desperately needs everyone to make decisions for him, while the next he plays a cop suspicious of his wife who was once lost at sea, and if that isn’t enough he rounds it out playing a member of a cult obsessed with pure water. And much like that high school troupe Plemons brings along with him his buddies that include, Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie all spread out through the three stories playing roles big and small. In fact one of the biggest highlights is seeing how they are used throughout not relying on bigger names always having to play bigger parts. It is probably the only time the overused saying “there are no small roles only small actors” actually feels to have any weight.

But having a great group of actors to torment only works if the material itself truly puts them through the wringer. KINDS OF KINDNESS is grounded in the real world and modern times, but so much of it feels like an alternate dimension or even more so our own world once many of us leave it. There is no way to know (short of me one day asking him) if Lanthimos himself is a fan of HBO’s “The Leftovers” but I would be shocked if he or Filippou had not dabbled in the show at least occasionally. KINDS OF KINDNESS very much feels in that realm of a world where many of us have been fortunate to go off to a better place (or so we are led to believe) while many of us remain stuck asking questions beyond life and death on what is next for them. Plemons as Robert is a fully indecisive man relying on his boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe basically being a grownup Patrick Bateman) to give him all the answers. Raymond tells Robert what to eat, drink, drive, how to have sex, and much more. Its masochist behavior can be seen as anyone who finds a god or power high than them for answers. There are big kinks that go alongside all of Plemons characters as well as many of the other people who show up including Stone playing a woman obsessed with finding the one girl she believes can bring people back to the dead. Everyone they play goes through life consuming every ounce of pain they can endure believing their path is the only way. There are those that try to better their ways or comfort them (for a film full of death Margaret Qualley’s characters often find the way to a beating heart), but even including Mamoudou Athie’s kind hearted cop partner to Plemons playing a grieving husband, there is the essence that everyone is living in pain and while some are trying to find answers others have given up searching and continue to just live until death.

If all this seems to heavy just know that Lanthimos is having a giant laugh throughout sometimes at our expense. He isn’t trying to dissuade you from his work, in fact he puts so much of himself into it (practically in the form of a character that connects everyone) that he is basically begging you for the same attention that many of his characters seek. This is a film above all else about connection and whether or not any actual kindness comes through is debatable. There are moments of great proclamation of love and dedication, but it also comes through in the form of co-dependency and desperation. With this desperation comes antics that on the outside looking in can appear hysterical, and if it appears hysterical it is because that is exactly what it is. Moments involving a world where dogs take over, group sex, and a dance sequence where Stone just goes for it gets great laughs even with all the pain still being exhibited. Lanthimos wants us to know it is okay to laugh as again he understands most of these characters are forever doomed so why try to hold their hands. In fact if anyone is asking for less kindness for these people it is the director himself. Instead he appears to want that compassionate behavior to be given more towards him as a filmmaker in reminding us that he hasn’t lost his touch and if he goes off and does a grand Odyssey of female discovery that he wants just as much compassion there as with his Greek tragedies. If there is co-dependency occurring it is between artist and consumer.

KINDS OF KINDNESS is a humorous film when it comes to its wrap up since technically has concluded three times and while anytime there’s an anthology film that interconnects far too many will spend time trying to figure out the order of each story. But Lanthimos appears to care less about the “Pulp Fiction” of it all, and the film is all the better for it, because it allows for us to realize the order of it all does not matter. This is not because the order is not important to the story, but because the characters appear doomed to never find solace even if they feel they have reached a sense of euphoria. Instead every moment blends into the other and their past becomes present and the future all at once. This is not a film focused on time and the space between but rather reminding us that those are lost will forever stay that way, and the best form of kindness they can find is being lost with someone else dependent on their every move.  

A

KINDS OF KINDNESS WILL BE RELEASED IN SELECT THEATERS BY SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES ON JUNE 21.

THE FILM WILL EXPAND NATIONWIDE JUNE 28