When one’s desire to be loved and accepted is tainted by obsession and desperation, dangerous consequences follow. In Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film “Kinds of Kindness,” three individuals give up everything for the sake of connection.
The anthology film addresses abuse, domination and sex — recurring themes across all of Lanthimos’ work. But, in contrast to his previous success “Poor Things,” Lanthimos employs a darker, more absurd and disturbing method of storytelling in “Kinds of Kindness.”
The film’s opening song — “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics — is a powerful hint of its overall message. As credits flash across the screen, audiences hear Annie Lennox sing, “Some of them want to use you / Some of them want to get used by you / Some of them want to abuse you / Some of them want to be abused,” perfectly summarizing and foreshadowing the relationships between the three main characters and their respective obsessions.
The film is split into three parts, each featuring the same star-studded cast, but focusing on a different set of characters and circumstances. The mysterious R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos) is the only character who appears throughout the film, albeit only for a few seconds in each part.
“The Death of R.M.F.” — the first story — eases viewers into the film’s unsettling nature, recounting the story of Robert (Jesse Plemons), a man whose entire life is dictated and planned by his boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Robert faces a dilemma when Raymond orders him to kill R.M.F.. Should he kill a man or disappoint Raymond, the single most important person in his life?
Robert’s initial refusal to commit the homicide sends his life into a downward spiral, as he slowly starts to lose everything he cherishes: Raymond, John McEnroe’s smashed tennis racquet (a gift from Raymond) and his wife (who he met because of Raymond).
After myriad events, including the introduction of Raymond’s new “assistant” Rita (Emma Stone), Robert drags R.M.F. — who Rita injures following the same assignment — out of his hospital bed and onto the street before killing him.
Such jarring scenes increase in frequency as the film progresses. In “R.M.F. Is Flying,” an increasingly unstable police officer Daniel (Plemons) orders his wife Liz (Stone) to complete various disturbing tasks, including feeding him her own body parts and organs.
“R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” includes arguably the film’s most perturbing scenes. The final story revolves around Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemons), two members of a sex cult led by Omi (Dafoe) and Aka (Hong Chau) on the search for a woman with mystical reanimation and healing powers.
One of the film’s highlights is the cast’s performances, especially Plemons. He almost transforms between the three parts and one may not even recognize that the same actor is portraying the desperate Robert, the unstable Daniel and the more subdued Andrew. Similarly, Stone shines in the third part with her portrayal of Emily. Audiences easily feel her desperation, betrayal, desolation and jubilation.
However, the film falls flat in its conveyance of its major themes. The development of the plot and characters is limited by the runtime of each story, making the overarching themes of abuse and domination hard to decipher after the first watch.
The first two parts also suffer from dissatisfying and confusing conclusions that seem to go against the film’s major message. Although both Robert and Daniel face consequences in their mission to be used or to abuse, respectively, neither appear to be affected by their decisions and both seemingly achieve their desired outcomes. Robert rekindles his relationship with Raymond and Daniel somehow receives (or hallucinates) a “new” Liz.
Emily’s storyline is the only one that truly shows the lasting consequences of abandoning one’s morals and sense of self for the sake of acceptance and love from others.
At the end of the movie, Emily finds and kidnaps Ruth (Margaret Qualley), the aforementioned mystical woman. With Ruth’s powers, Emily resurrects R.M.F. — who was somehow alive during the second part and returned to being dead during the third. As Emily races back to the cult compound with a semi-conscious Ruth in the back to share the good news, she crashes her car and kills the mysterious healer. Emily’s abandonment of her family in her quest for love and acceptance only leads her to lose more.
As “Kinds of Kindness” concludes, audiences watch the reanimated R.M.F. take a bite out of a hamburger — a fittingly perplexing ending to one of the most absurd, mind-boggling and shocking films that most of them have ever seen.
Manav is a junior from Indiana, concentrating in International and Public Affairs. In his free time, he likes attempting the daily Connections puzzle or falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes.
