Kinds of Kindness (2024)

[Pieter V]

KINDS OF KINDNESS | Official Trailer | Searchlight UK - YouTube

[Hedrox]

This has good reviews out of Cannes, but not exactly critical acclaim. It's also a pretty long movie at 2h44m, will be interesting to see how well it does.

[DanTheMan]

Bad news: This won’t expand in my local area until the weekend of the 28th.

Good news: Dolby Cinema!

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by DanTheMan

Bad news: This won’t expand in my local area until the weekend of the 28th.

Good news: Dolby Cinema!

Good to hear. Hopefully my theater gets this. They didn't get Poor Things until after the Oscar noms were announced

[Cremildo]

[Frank TJ Mackey]

I wonder how wide this is expanding this weekend?

To me, it doesn’t look like it’s going to a very big release unless it’s going to be a very slow rollout over a number of weeks

[RevolverOcelScott]

Originally Posted by Frank TJ Mackey

I wonder how wide this is expanding this weekend?

To me, it doesn’t look like it’s going to a very big release unless it’s going to be a very slow rollout over a number of weeks

I have over 6 Regals near me. Only one is playing it. Same thing happened with Poor Things (until the Oscar Buzz).

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Sadly not playing near me.

Closest place is a while away at a arthouse theater. I could take multiple buses there. But my thing is I've never been there before and don't wanna end up missing the bus and either having to take a Uber home. Which cost like $80 or so. Or having to call someone to pick me up.

Why I was hoping my local regal got it. As mentioned my theater didn't get Poor Things until the Oscar buzz

[sbyers49]

That's unfortunate you guys aren't getting Kinds of Kindness.

I lucked out, and I was able to see Kinds of Kindness in Dolby Wednesday night.

Not only does the score lend itself to a Dolby Atmos mix-- the color grading lends itself to Dolby Vision; the visuals are truly top-notch. I LOVED seeing the colors pop.

That being said, the film alone is a mixed bag. I was never bored, which is why I'd give it a light 6, but the strongest section here truly is the first. I won't get into spoilers, but the second section takes a while to get going, and I would've personally axed some of the third section, since the final section feels much longer than the first two.

I will say there is a scene with Emma Stone and Joe Alwyn's character that is so off-color, it almost ruined my enjoyment of the film. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when it happens. You'll be like, "Did I just see what I just saw? Who allowed this?" Maybe that was the point, but as a viewer who doesn't get offended very easily, I definitely was taken aback.

I would definitely be interested in owning Kinds of Kindness at home since it is so strange and the performers truly give their all here, but Poor Things and The Favourite are definitely superior. I'd say Kinds of Kindness is a notch below The Killing of a Sacred Deer (which I also enjoyed).

[BluBonnet]

"Wanna see my hedgehog?"

[R0CK0X]

Originally Posted by sbyers49

I will say there is a scene with Emma Stone and Joe Alwyn's character that is so off-color, it almost ruined my enjoyment of the film. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when it happens. You'll be like, "Did I just see what I just saw? Who allowed this?" Maybe that was the point, but as a viewer who doesn't get offended very easily, I definitely was taken aback.

Do you remember which scene this was? I just finished the movie today and I’ll admit I don’t remember a scene that particularly stood out to me as being especially offensive.

[Monterey Jack]

Un. Watchable. It doesn't even LOOK good, which is usually a given with Yorgos movies. Each segment is more ornately incomprehensible than the previous one, and it's an absolute chore to sit through. This is a massive disappointment compared to The Favourite and Poor Things.

[Steedeel]

I will blind buy the on Blu-ray. (Doubt we will get 4K), after The Favourite and Poor Things, the director has earned my trust.

[The Great Owl]

Five stars

Kinds of Kindness, a 2024 anthology film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, presents the viewer with three loosely-connected stories starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, and Joe Alwyn, all of whom appear as different characters in each triptych installment. The first tale, “The Death of R.M.F”, introduces us to a beleaguered employee (Plemons) who grapples with moral qualms about the tasks that are assigned to him by his controlling boss (Dafoe). In the second, “R.M.F is Flying”, a police officer (Plemons) is initially relieved when his marine biologist wife (Stone) is rescued after being lost at sea, but soon comes to question if she is the same person that she was before her tragic misadventure. “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” closes the proceedings with two cult members, played by Stone and Plemons, who are seeking candidates to take back to their leader (Dafoe).

Those who are not well-versed in the uncanny blend of dark comedy, sex, and grisly violence that has always been a Yorgos Lanthimos specialty will likely leave the theater in bewildered disgust. Even those who enjoyed this director's previous offerings, The Favourite (2018) and Poor Things (2023), will likely scratch their heads, because those two acclaimed predecessors, however bold and daring, are actually quite conventional compared to his earlier movies and to this latest endeavor.

I personally love Kinds of Kindness, although I wonder if I belong in a hospital for holding it in such high regard. I am always overjoyed by big-budget films that make me feel something, even if that feeling is often disgust. I also love movies like this that manage to be unpredictable at every turn, because such an attribute is rare in this age of cookie cutter cinema. I appreciate that the three disparate tales here feature characters who are driven to shocking extremes in order to appease those whom they adore and worship, because the plight of individuals who are shunned from relationships, cliques, and communities to whom they have devoted their existences is relatably heartbreaking. Finally, I am always game for some David Lynch-esque surrealism.

Jesse Plemons is the most valuable player here, because of his ability to immerse himself with aplomb into every given part and because his expressions are such that one can never tell what his characters will do next. As with her work in The Favourite and Poor Things, Emma Stone impresses me to no end with her willingness to tackle uncompromisingly risky roles.

[EvaDK]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Finally, I am always game for some David Lynch-esque surrealism.

You had me at 'Lynch'

[eightslicesofpie]

As I expected, being an anthology it's lower on my list of Yorgos flicks (I'm just not really into anthologies), but it is pretty funny and interesting, definitely enjoyed it quite a bit. Still an 8/10 for me

[TheBondFan]

That's a guaranteed flop at the box office but that's a very good movie. I liked it. First story and third stories were the best ones in my opinion. The second one was pretty meh.

Although they are very different, in reality there are many similarities between each story.

[Pieter V]

Using KODAK 35mm filmstocks, DP Robbie Ryan ISC BSC serves up vibrant visuals for Yorgos Lanthimos's colorfully absurd 'Kinds of Kindness'

https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog...s-of-kindness/

[Guy87]

My two and a half star review on Letterboxd
https://boxd.it/6NdKyN

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

Pfff....well. Where to start?

Yorgos Lanthimos follows up the Award winning 'Poor Things' with an almost impenetrable trilogy of stories (all with the same cast in different parts) all about obsession and control, with a script that is both surreal and absurd.

The downside to this however, is that as fun as it might be watching, say Jesse Plemons obey every one of Willem Dafoe's orders for every second of his existence for reasons we can't fully comprehend there's also a lot of what feels like wheel spinning.

We are asked to accept the absurd scenarios presented to us at face value, but during the playing out of those scenarios are offered zero lifelines at to why we might be seeing certain events, and at 165 minutes, that's a lot of patience required.

Does that mean you can't get caught up in the narrative? Not at all, seeing the desperation etched into the faces of the actors is more than enough to let you know that whatever is happening is important, and thus you can empathise with what they're feeling or trying to achieve, even if you don't fully understand the machinations behind it, but it can also mean being ultimately let down at the conclusion of the stories when the ending doesn't give us any more closure than the rest of it (the second story particularly).

The score can be grating at times also. I know it's meant to be, what with the characters all being desperate to be wanted by someone whether it's good for them or not (mostly not) but still, nearly three hours of high drama scoring can be more than enough.

My wife felt that the first story was the strongest, but I offered up to her the opinion that any of the three may have been considered the strongest if presented first (particularly if you're unaware it was a portmanteau like she had been) as the issue was the test of patience the film requires of you after that initial story to sit through two more.

Still, I've not seen anything else like it at the cinema this year (other than Poor Things), so there's that. Also it gets stars for a shot of dogs driving a car as Dio sings 'Rainbow in the Dark'.

[format916]

I would probably watch this again over Poor Things. Sort of David Lynch meets Eyes Wide Shut.