Yahoo Movies Jesse Plemons excels in the unique, funny and dark Kinds of Kindness
Stop us if you've heard this recently: Emma Stone starring in an often weird and truly singular movie from Yorgos Lanthimos about existential questions such as what it means to be human and to love.
No, we're not being super late on reviewing Poor Things. Mere months after that movie saw Stone win her second Oscar, Lanthimos is back with Kinds of Kindness, a hefty triptych that might test the patience of those only familiar with the filmmaker's most recent work.
Stick with it though and you're rewarded with another movie that only Lanthimos could make, one that'll have you wincing, laughing and thinking – often all within the same scene.
And one thing's for certain, you won't see another movie like Kinds of Kindness this year.
The three stories that make up Kinds of Kindness share the same actors, but are otherwise largely unconnected. However, for reasons Lanthimos leaves you to consider, each features a man known only as RMF (Yorgos Stefanakos) who is also referenced in the title of each story.
'The Death of RMF' kicks things off as we follow Robert (Jesse Plemons) who lives his life exactly as he's told to by his boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe). One day, Robert decides he's had enough and breaks free, only to find that freedom might not be all it's cracked up to be.
The second tale, 'RMF is Flying', brings back Plemons, this time as Daniel, who believes his wife Liz (Stone) is no longer the woman he married. She's returned from being reported missing, and while Liz wants to get back to normal, Daniel decides to set twisted challenges for her to prove who she is.
'RMF Eats a Sandwich', the longest of the three stories, has Stone take the lead as Emily. Along with Andrew (Plemons), Emily is tasked by her cult's leader (Dafoe) to find a person with the ability to resurrect the dead.
It won't take long into Kinds of Kindness's first story to know that the title is ironic. There's very little kindness on display here, with the characters taking the phrase 'cruel to be kind' as a life motto. It's an exploration of how far people go for the ones they love, albeit in a heightened world.
The second story, in particular, has several shocking moments, bleak in the extreme and hard to watch. Yet, Lanthimos being Lanthimos, this is also the story that contains the funniest gags – including a show-stopping 'home video' joke – and everything is shot through with the darkest of humour.
It's hard to call The Favourite and Poor Things mainstream in any way, but Kinds of Kindness feels more in line with Lanthimos' earlier work. Reteaming with Efthimis Filippou – who co-wrote Alps, Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer – has made Lanthimos arguably more deadpan, savage and defiantly strange than before.
You won't necessarily 'get' it all in the first watch, and perhaps even not on a rewatch, and Lanthimos leaves it to you to fit together what it all means. For some, being in his world for 164 minutes will prove too bleak and too much, aided by the fact that the final story is the weakest of the three (merely good, rather than great).
However, what should keep audiences invested is Lanthimos's ability to pick actors who understand what he's going for. We knew Emma Stone was on his wavelength and she proves as fearless and magnetic as ever, whether she's a desperate cultist or a devoted wife, but it's Jesse Plemons who is a revelation here.
Deservedly winning Best Actor at Cannes, it feels like Plemons was born for this cinematic world. Adept at sympathetic oddballs, he commits to everything Lanthimos throws at him, often making himself quite pathetic when the character calls for it. Like with Stone, you'll want to see Plemons work again with Lanthimos as it's a career-best performance.
The movie is truly an ensemble effort, though, with Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie and Joe Alwyn stepping up when required. It's just a shame that there isn't more for Hunter Schafer to do other than a thankless cameo role at the start of the third story.
It's little flaws like this, especially so in the final story, that means Kinds of Kindness falls short of the very best of Yorgos Lanthimos's work. But it's very telling of its quality that you'll want to delve back into this world to try and work out exactly what it all means – if you ever can.
Kinds of Kindness is released in cinemas on June 28.
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