Probing Extremes in 'Kinds of Kindness'

Minor spoilers for Kinds of Kindness ahead.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film Kinds of Kindness is about control, obsession, and duality. Its themes can be inferred from the movie’s posters, which depict actors Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and others wearing masks of their own faces. The triptych follow-up to his four-time Oscar-winner Poor Things (2023), Kinds of Kindness sees the Greek director maintaining his winning streak. His 2024 anthology contains three fables, each a little under an hour in length, with its star-studded cast playing different characters in each segment. 

While Kinds of Kindness is far less upbeat than the Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” from the trailers, the song’s lyrics resonate with central ideas in the film: 

“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.” 

In the first segment, “The Death of R.M.F.,” Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons) works at a company where he is pressured by his boss and lover, Raymond (Willem Dafoe), into killing a man with the initials of R.M.F. with his car. The man has agreed to be killed, but Fletcher refuses to take part in it, which causes his life to crumble before his eyes in ways he never anticipated. 

This section is most explicitly about power and control. Raymond dictates nearly every aspect of Fletcher’s life like a puppet master – he gives him daily time-tables that tell him when to eat, when to sleep, what to read, and even when to have sex with his wife, Sarah (Hong Chau). Plemons’ performance as a weak-willed man who has become dependent on omnipotent direction is one of the best of the actor’s career. The taut suspense and commentary on human nature make for a surprisingly intimate character study, and arguably the best portion of the film. 

Unlike the Wizard of Oz-esque use of switching from black and white to color in Poor Things, Lanthimos often switches from color to black and white in Kinds of Kindness to suggest that an event may be occurring in a character’s imagination or past, such as the scene where Fletcher confronts Raymond in a parking lot. The moment is first shown to us in black-and-white, as Robert’s dream, then in color, indicating the real outcome. 

This stylistic choice relates to a theme in “The Death of R.M.F.” – the impact that the freedom to make choices and live our own lives has on us. Just like Robert, most of us analyze possible outcomes before we make what we believe is the best choice. Lanthimos shows us in this fable that any choice we make can have the power to reshape our lives, perhaps in ways we never could have expected. In the end, Robert returns to his boss instead of embracing his newfound freedom because his controlled life is all he truly knows. With this, Lanthimos shows how courage and fear play into our choices. 

Plemons also stars as the lead in the second story, “R.M.F. is Flying.” In this segment, he plays a police officer named Daniel whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) returns from being lost at sea. Once she’s back, however, Daniel feels like she isn’t the person she used to be. At first, he is disturbed when she eats an entire chocolate cake, but he is put over the edge when he realizes all her shoes are now one size too small. 

In typical Lanthimos fashion, this Twilight Zone-esque premise quickly turns on its head. As Daniel grows more fixated with the notion that Liz isn’t his real wife, his sanity starts to crumble. This is perhaps Lanthimos’s commentary on the power obsession has over our minds. Daniel is not obsessed with Liz, but his idea of Liz. 

When the woman who Daniel believes is the real Liz magically arrives at his door at the end of the fable, he embraces her without a second thought as the “imposter” Liz lies dead before them. The scene feels almost dream-like from the way it's shot, which led me to question Daniel’s experience of reality. Daniel is perhaps the most difficult protagonist to get on board with in the movie, and the end of “R.M.F. is Flying” feels the least assuring. Was Daniel wrong about the real Liz? Or could it all have been just a dream? 

In the final chapter, “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” Stone takes a turn as the lead, playing a woman named Emily who has abandoned her husband and daughter for a cult. She and her partner Andrew (Plemons) have been tasked by the cult leaders, Omi (Dafoe) and Aka (Chau), to locate a woman who has the power to reverse death. When Emily reveals to Andrew that she believes she saw the woman in a dream, she splits from her partner and grows increasingly fixated on tracking her down. 

While notable for being the segment that features Stone’s kooky dance scene from the trailers, the last chapter is also deeply surreal and surprisingly scary. I found myself most put off by the mysterious cult, as many scenes featuring Omi’s and Aka’s purifying group verge on horror. Also, this segment contains a disturbing depiction of domestic violence, offering a reason why Emily left her home life behind. Emily is not completely free, but at least in this cult, she is free from her abusive husband and dark past. 

Stone’s performance shines as one of the best in the film. She conveys both Emily’s individualistic spirit and unnerving commitment to destiny. Through Emily’s unsuccessful pursuit of her quest, Lanthimos explores the futility of pursuing goals that take over all aspects of our lives, which may even include our rationality. 

While picking apart the movie's absurdity might seem pointless, Kinds of Kindness can only really be “solved” by examining the relationship between the stories. As a whole, the fables are about probing extremes, as many characters go from one pole to the other during the film – Robert experiences both total control and complete freedom in “The Death of R.M.F.,” Daniel thinks his wife is a different person, then seemingly becomes a different version of himself in “R.M.F. is Flying,” and Emily finds the woman she has been obsessively searching for throughout “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” only to lose her in an instant. 

The absurdist nature of Kinds of Kindness may not seem like a widely accessible summer flick for most, but fans of Lanthimos are likely to enjoy the director’s horror-esque return-to-form after period pieces The Favourite (2018) and Poor Things. Despite its disturbing elements, the film is also darkly funny and exciting to witness with an audience. 

This film is far from the last collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone. The director’s next film, Bugonia, (also starring Plemons), is set to be released in November 2025. Until then, Kinds of Kindness deserves attention for helping to make arthouse cinema more mainstream – just don’t go in expecting a film about kindness. 

See Kinds of Kindness in theaters.

-Luna