Kinds of Kindness
Returning to the drier, more uncomfortable and cruel Lanthimos after Poor Things has its appeal. Much of that film's visual splendour disappears here, and we return to characters who speak and behave as if ordinary emotional rules do not entirely apply. The result is a strange triptych about people willing to do absurd things in order to preserve power, affection, belonging or control.
I found the first two stories quite entertaining. They have that extremely dark humour of his where you are never entirely sure whether you should laugh or feel uneasy, and they work because Lanthimos pushes recognizable situations into increasingly uncomfortable territory without worrying about offering reassuring explanations. There is something fascinating about watching how far his characters will go when they depend on someone else's approval.
The cast helps enormously. Jesse Plemons fits this universe particularly well because his restrained acting style makes the situations feel even stranger. Emma Stone once again commits completely to Lanthimos, Willem Dafoe seems born to inhabit this kind of world, and seeing the same performers reappear as different characters turns the film into a kind of experiment in different forms of dependence.
The problem comes when the mechanism starts to become too visible. The third story felt heavy to me, and that is where I really noticed the running time. What retained mystery, humour and unpredictability in the first two segments begins to feel like a repetition of a formula: characters trapped in strange relationships, arbitrary rules and behaviour pushed toward deliberately absurd extremes.
That does not mean there is no interesting common idea. All three stories revolve around the power we hand to other people when we desperately need their love, approval or the feeling that we belong somewhere. The supposed "kindness" of the title therefore becomes rather ironic: many of the relationships we see have more to do with control, obedience and need than with genuine generosity.
But almost three hours is too much for a concept that works best when it surprises. I was interested, occasionally amused, and I admire Lanthimos for continuing to make films this uncompromising, but this time the provocation does not always have something equally powerful behind it. Two stories kept me engaged; the third made me start checking the time. A distinctive, well-acted triptych, but also far more uneven and exhausting than it needed to be.
I found the first two stories quite entertaining. They have that extremely dark humour of his where you are never entirely sure whether you should laugh or feel uneasy, and they work because Lanthimos pushes recognizable situations into increasingly uncomfortable territory without worrying about offering reassuring explanations. There is something fascinating about watching how far his characters will go when they depend on someone else's approval.
The cast helps enormously. Jesse Plemons fits this universe particularly well because his restrained acting style makes the situations feel even stranger. Emma Stone once again commits completely to Lanthimos, Willem Dafoe seems born to inhabit this kind of world, and seeing the same performers reappear as different characters turns the film into a kind of experiment in different forms of dependence.
The problem comes when the mechanism starts to become too visible. The third story felt heavy to me, and that is where I really noticed the running time. What retained mystery, humour and unpredictability in the first two segments begins to feel like a repetition of a formula: characters trapped in strange relationships, arbitrary rules and behaviour pushed toward deliberately absurd extremes.
That does not mean there is no interesting common idea. All three stories revolve around the power we hand to other people when we desperately need their love, approval or the feeling that we belong somewhere. The supposed "kindness" of the title therefore becomes rather ironic: many of the relationships we see have more to do with control, obedience and need than with genuine generosity.
But almost three hours is too much for a concept that works best when it surprises. I was interested, occasionally amused, and I admire Lanthimos for continuing to make films this uncompromising, but this time the provocation does not always have something equally powerful behind it. Two stories kept me engaged; the third made me start checking the time. A distinctive, well-acted triptych, but also far more uneven and exhausting than it needed to be.
Mini Review: Returning to the drier, more uncomfortable and cruel Lanthimos after Poor Things has its appeal. Much of that film's visual splendour disappears here, and we return to characters who speak and behave as if ordinary emotional rules do not entirely apply. The result is a strange triptych about people willing to do absurd things in order to preserve power, affection, belonging or control. I found the first two stories quite entertaining. They have...
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