Kinds of Kindness, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and co-written with Efthimis Filippou, stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, among others. The film also features Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie in pivotal roles. The anthology film premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17. Described as a ‘triptych fable’, the film consists of three distinct but loosely connected stories. Kinds of Kindness has received mixed reactions from critics. Kinds of Kindness Teaser: Emma Stone Drives Swifty in Yorgos Lanthimos' Upcoming Anthology; Film To Be Out on June 21, 2024 (Watch Video).
The synopsis of the film reads, “Kinds Of Kindness is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.” Take a look at some of the reviews below:
Watch The Teaser Of Kinds Of Kindness Below:
Screen Daily – Visually, and technically, this stripped-back Yorgos Lanthimos film is a pleasure to watch. Robbie Ryan’s camera seems to relish the limitations and opportunities it offers. This New Orleans is soulless and almost Ballard-like, yet it’s so intriguingly of this world and somewhere apart at the same time.
IndiWire – If the titles of the movie’s three chapters are unhelpful nonsense, the title of the movie itself proves to be plenty instructive: Each segment explores a very different kind of kindness, all of which seem like forms of cruelty until a shift in perspective reveals they come from a better place.
The Guardian – Yorgos Lanthimos’s unnerving and amusing new film arrives in Cannes less than a year after the release of his Oscar-winning Alasdair Gray adaptation Poor Things. It is a macabre, absurdist triptych: three stories or three narrative variations on a theme, set in and around modern-day New Orleans. Kinds of Kindness feels heavier and longer than I expected, as if reaching for a meaningful resolution that might not be there. Yet absence and loss is perhaps the whole point.
ICS – Kinds of Kindness is a peculiar entry in Lanthimos’ work because of its anthological nature, which undoubtedly leads to comparisons between the three stories despite their shared themes (and cast). For this reviewer’s money the middle story is the weakest, even if its reversal of focus from Plemons to Stone makes its storytelling the most dynamic.
Variety – This long, scaldingly original film enthralls even as it frustrates, defying conventional logic while presenting an absurdist riff on modern society. It’s never boring, and yet, Lanthimos’ outré sensibility demands a special brand of patience (not to mention wariness) from viewers, many of whom will come to see Plemons and Stone stretching beyond their respective comfort zones, only to have the same limits tested in themselves.
The Hollywood Reporter – Kinds of Kindness will likely be something of an acquired taste, but at the very least it’s a movie that keeps you wondering where it’s going next. A debt to Luis Buñuel notwithstanding, Lanthimos is his own breed of storyteller, and that alone makes his work something to be savored.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 18, 2024 08:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).