I have had the chance to watch the Sundance debuting art film, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ and I must say that I am not very impressed.

The movie is an anthology containing 3 separate stories all with the same actors playing different characters. The titles of all the 3 separate stories are centered around the incidental character R.M.F (Yorgos Stefanakos). The character portraying him being dead or close to death in the 3 films are the only real throughline throughout the films although there are no real things keeping the stories together at all as they are separate with no overlapping story nor characters.

The first film, ‘The Death of R.M.F’, centers around Robert (Jesse Plemons) who works for the rich man Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Raymond orders Robert around and is supervising every minute detail in his life. After 10 years of service Robert finally tells Raymond off when he is told to kill a man in a staged traffic accident. Raymond cuts Robert out of his life and fires him causing his life to collapse. After Robert goes on a date with a girl named Rita (Emma stone) he finds out that she is controlled by Raymond and his replacement. Robert finds R.M.F who Rita fails to kill and murders him himself leading Robert to have a threesome with Raymond and his assistant Vivian (Margaret) where Raymond exclaims how proud he is of Robert.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

The second film, ‘R.M.F is flying’, once again centers around a character being portrayed by Jesse Plemons. In this film he plays Daniel, a police officer whose wife, Liz (Emma Stone) has gone missing at sea. Daniel is pained by her disappearance but when she is found and rescued he feels something is amiss. She acts strange and her shoes no longer fit her shoes. Daniel assumes she is an imposter but no one is convinced by him. Daniel makes her dismember her finger and cook it for him and then makes her cook her liver. When she is dead the real Liz appears.

In the third film ‘R.M.F Eats a Sandwich’ Emma Stone is playing the protagonist Emily. Emily and Andrew (Jesse Plemons) are in a form of sex cult where they have been given the mission to find the chosen one who can revive people from the dead. After Emily gets roofied and exposed to sex crimes (by her ex-husband) she is no longer considered pure by the cult and is forced to leave. After she finds the chosen one she means to return her to the cult but get in a traffic accident which kills the chosen one.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

The best thing I have to say about the movie is that the acting is very great throughout it all. The movie is from beginning to end played in a very peculiar way where the character speaks very matter of factly and uncanny in a way that is typical for the director Yorgos Lanthimos. Although I question the stylistic choice as its inclusion only feels semantic, I for the most part feel that it is played very well by the actors.

I am not the greatest fan of its sound design. It takes a minimalistic approach where most of the film's OST is made of one piano key getting hit harder over and over again as some form of tension building. It does work sometimes but it is almost annoying how much it is used in the movie.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

In the same vein many shots are taken in a way where they look flat, badly positioned or awkward. I assume this is made to play into the film's aesthetics where everything feels uncanny, stiff and awkward but I find it questionable. Some decisions are however fitting. There aren’t many close ups which is good. The movie always keeps us at an arm's length from the characters and it is fitting that the camera isn’t too involved either. Many weird scenarios are shot as if they were normal which is good.

The movie doesn't address that the stories are separate and as a viewer i thought we were following the same characters well into the second film. After having watched it I have no idea what is meant to be the troughline throughout these 3 seemingly separate stories. Not even their themes are similar. If there is supposed to be something to keep these stories together except for the arbitrary inclusion of R.M.F I would be shocked.

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

The film is very provocative for no clear reason. The movie contains self harm, dismemberment, sex, graphic murder, sex crimes and more, all uncensored. While I see how some of it is fitting to the story I find most of it unnecessary. I understand why we have to watch Robert painstakingly run over R.M.F’s unconscious body multiple times to ensure his death to really show how far gone he is but I do not see why we have to have the characters watch homemade adult films for no apparent reason. I don’t know why the sex crimes has to be shown either as it could just as well have been implied. A lot of the film's provocative imagery I can understand has some use but I can’t say anyone in the theater looked especially pleased when subjected to the imagery of a woman cutting off her finger. It often feels provocative for the sake of being provocative and a lot of the stories are almost nonsensical, the second one in particular feels both derivative of previous stories yet manages to be unsatisfactory and incomprehensible in its ending. I am unsure at this point if it is meant to be a satire of other “art films” but it is made so unclear.

The story reminded me a lot of dogtooth which it shares its director with so if Lanthimos is one of your favorites or if you are a fan of uncanny art film this is something for you. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.

RATING: 2/5