Hot off the success of four-time Oscar winning film Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos is already back with Kinds of Kindness, playing in theaters now. This anthology film, with three distinct stories in one, is very different fare, with a darker, more brutal humor and more obtuse storytelling. Most critics agree that this is a return to the Yorgos of yore, when he previously collaborated with Efthimis Filippou on films such as The Lobster (2015) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), as opposed to Tony McNamara, who was the writer for the relatively tamer (emphasis on relatively!) period pieces, The Favourite (2018) and Poor Things (2023).
On this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Antonio, and I search for meaning by dissecting individual stories and zooming out to try to connect common themes across all three. What does Kinds of Kindness have to say about power and control? Where does reality end and fantasy or allegory begin? And will this film be too weird and too abstract for The Academy?
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Image Credit: NPR
The Short Take Our overall impressions of Kinds of Kindness. (The noise you hear in the background are fireworks going off in P.T.’s neighborhood.) 3:15
The Recommendation Algorithm If you liked Poor Things, will you like Kinds of Kindness? 7:54
SPOILER MODE How would we rank the three stories? What are the themes that cut across all three stories? Who is RMF and what is their purpose? 14:13
The Rhetorical Situation What do we call these stories? Allegories? Parables? Myths? And what role do dreams or visions play? 1:02:06
Oscars Watch Will Yorgos ride the Poor Things wave into this year or will Kinds of Kindness be too extreme for The Academy? 1:34:29
P.T. referenced a couple of articles this week:
Variety article. What Yorgos Lanthimos has to say about RMF.
Films Fatale review. A potential explanation that unlocks the entire film!
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Kinds of Kindness Review