Yorgos Lanthimos' new film, Kinds of Kindness, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024. The anthology film consists of three distinct stories with different cast members playing roles in each. The first story revolves around an office worker who finally rebels against his overbearing boss's intimate tyranny. In the second story, a police officer is disturbed when his marine-biologist wife returns home after months of being stranded on a desert island and suspects she has been replaced by a double. The third story follows two cult members searching for a young woman believed to have the power to raise the dead.
The film received overwhelming praise, with each premiere resulting in standing ovations. Lanthimos' previous works, such as Poor Things, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Synonyms, were also well-received at Cannes. Searchlight Pictures will debut Kinds of Kindness on June 21.
The cast includes Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mamoudou Athie, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, and Joe Alwyn. Plemons is often portrayed as stolid and unhappy while Stone is fierce and capable but sometimes vulnerable and sexual. Dafoe plays a charismatic authority figure.
Food imagery such as overeating, undereating, steak, chocolate recur throughout the film. People get pregnant and suffer miscarriages. Love is proven through submission to abuse and coercive control.
Doubles and twins are a motif in the film. The piano key sound is used to punctuate recognition moments.
Lanthimos' previous works have been known for their macabre themes, absurdism, selfishness, delusion, and despair. His use of repertory casting adds an eerie effect as the same actors repeatedly show up in different roles.
The film has been described as a triptych with three stories or narrative variations on a theme. It is set in and around modern-day New Orleans.
Kinds of Kindness is Lanthimos' latest addition to his body of work, which includes films such as The Favourite, Synonyms, and Poor Things. His previous works have been praised for their unique storytelling and stylish direction.