Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Kinds of Kindness Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 7, 2024

What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year, word was already building for Poor Things, which had then recently taken the Venice Film Festival by storm and won the Golden Lion, whetting appetites for what would be the film's "wide" release in a couple of months, but starting a veritable onslaught of press reporting that I can tell you from personal experience pretty much filled my news feed for weeks. Which brings us to Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos' follow up to his Oscar winning sensation, and one which not so coincidentally reunited him with star Emma Stone, and featured players Willem Dafoe and (Sarah) Margaret Qualley (there are other tethers between the two outings on the production side of things as well). To simply cut to the chase, have you heard much about Kinds of Kindness? Well, you very well might have heard something, but as of the writing of this review, I can tell you based simply on my own admittedly nonacademic anecdotal reportage, there's virtually none of the "buzz" surrounding this film that accompanied Poor Things, and one sign of that deficit may be the actually kind of amazingly small receipts the film has evidently generated at the box office. Poor Things managed to rake in well over $100 million globally, but Kinds of Kindness has barely earned back more than its reported $15 million budget. Audience acceptance is not always an apt barometer of a film's true "worth", and in one of those "let's just face facts" data points, Yorgos Lanthimos has never seemed especially concerned about viewer reaction to his often completely gonzo approaches, but one way or the other, this so-called "triptych" may be three times too weird for even diehard fans of this auteur whose very oddness is one of his most celebrated aspects.

Fans of so-called portmanteau offerings from the likes of Amicus and/or Hammer may find this film's structure to perhaps be as interesting as anything actually portrayed in the various stories, but Kinds of Kindness goes "one better" in a way by having the several of the performers segue from role to role as the three tales unfold, in a conceit that is just one of several perceived "meta" aspects that Lanthimos evidently loves to virtually wallow in, but which may not ever really "pay off" in any meaningful sense. There are other connective tissues between the three stories, most notably the enigmatic character known only as R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos, perhaps begging the question "how many people named Yorgos can one film have?"). If there has been any "buzz" surrounding Kinds of Kindness, at least on the internet, it may be the somewhat hilarious scurrying to "define" what these initials stand for, even if Lanthimos in a supplement on this disc clearly states they mean nothing whatsoever. I will only add in this regard that despite a number of often guffaw worthy threads on various posting sites claiming to have "solved" this "mystery", a cursory Google search provides the also laugh out loud worthy "response" that in the world of business RMF stands for Risk Management Framework, something that seems positively a propos to what this particular character experiences throughout the three stories.

And in fact R.M.F. is overtly named in each of the "chapter titles" of this tri-fold tale. The Death of R.M.F. focuses on hapless if very upscale Robert Fletcher (Jesse Plemons), who is being controlled in virtually every aspect of his life by his genially menacing boss (and evidently lover), Raymond (Willem Dafoe). Suffice it to say for reasons unexplained and frankly unexplored, Raymond has a "hold" over Robert that includes everything from Robert's work life to Robert's home life with his wife, Sarah (Hong Chau). It's rather quickly revealed (in a suitably Lanthimos-esque disjunctive way) that Raymond has tasked Robert with killing R.M.F. in a car "accident", but of course things don't go as planned, and Robert begins to have major qualms about this particular "assignment", leading to calamitous consequences. Rather interestingly, aside from a very brief introductory vignette that also gives us our first glimpse of R.M.F., Emma Stone shows up relatively late as another underling of Raymond's named Rita.

R.M.F. is Flying seems to be flirting with Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory in its focus on a policeman named Daniel (Jesse Plemons), who insists that his wife Liz (Emma Stone), a marine biologist who has been missing at sea for some time, is in fact not his wife, when she almost miraculously shows up again, unharmed. That incipient paranoia on Daniel's part starts to play out in a number of completely gonzo ways, and it's perhaps not all that much of a joke to state that those who have seen Lanthimos' unforgettable (for better or worse) The Lobster may be somewhat better prepared than the noninitiated for some more "interspecies" metamorphic subtext (or even text), along with liberal doses of quasi-cannibalism.

Feeding off bodies, or at least bodily effluent, shows up again in the film's wrap up vignette, R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich. It may be almost gobsmacking, considering the summaries above, to state that this third story is arguably even more opaque than the prior two tales, with a convoluted narrative that involves a couple name Emily (Emma Stone) and Andrew (Jesse Plemons) who are part of a cult that is led by Omi (Willem Dafoe) and Aka (Hong Chau). Everything from sex to reanimating the dead informs this crazy quilt tale, which ends with yet another overt reference to that pesky R.M.F., with a brief "cameo" that at least image wise may hint at blood letting, even if the character looks to be very much alive despite all that has gone before.

So what is one to make of all of this? As I mentioned long ago in our The Lobster Blu-ray review, Lanthimos seems to unabashedly delight in confounding his audience, and if Kinds of Kindness "succeeds" in anything, it's no doubt in that particular proclivity. While the film may not have generated Poor Things sized "buzz", there are theories abounding all over the wild and woolly internet supposedly offering meaningful theses as to what exactly Lanthimos is up to with this motley crew of yarns, but the fact that these analyses vary from the Dada-eque to the Biblical may hint at how unfathomable much of Kinds of Kindness ultimately is. As it stands (and/or falls), Kinds of Kindness is an obvious showcase for all of the performers who get to reinvent themselves several times over, and that in and of itself may be enough to entice those willing to brave Lanthimos' undeniable oddities.

Kinds of Kindness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kinds of Kindness is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios' Searchlight imprint and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot on film and finished at 4K, this is a often gorgeous looking transfer, with a beautifully suffused palette that takes full advantage of some passingly breathtaking locations, as in the high rise in the first "episode", or the seaside cult in the third outing. Blues in particular are incredibly evocative throughout all three stories, including some more teal tones that seem to have been intentionally utilized to at least subliminally link the sections. Kind of interestingly, the IMDb lists a whole slew of different stocks that were utilized, which may help to explain certain variations in both overall color temperature but some observable differences in grain resolution. This being your good, old fashioned (?) Yorgos Lanthimos movie and all, there are a number of relatively unexplained black and white interstitials which serve a kind of quasi-flashback or at least alternative point of view function, and those offer secure contrast and excellent detail levels.

Kinds of Kindness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kinds of Kindness features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that manages to offer regular engagement of the surround channels despite what might be considered an absence of "showy" sonics. Instead, the piano based score by Jerskin Fendrix, returning to collaborate with Lanthimos again after Poor Things (and evidently already slated to score Lanthimos' latest, Bugonia) as well as subtle but easily discernable ambient environmental sounds, are consistently placed around the soundstage. There are occasional near startle effects, as in the unexpected first car crash in the opening story. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Kinds of Kindness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• It Takes All Kinds: The Vision of Kinds of Kindness (HD; 15:14) offers some fun interviews with the principal cast and crew.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 1:04)

A digital copy is also included. Packaging features a slipcover.

Kinds of Kindness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another exercise in. . .well, something Yorgos Lanthimos-ish. Finer minds than mine will have to divine some unrecognized meaning in all of this craziness, but I know from having heard from some Lanthimos fans, that Lanthimos' very craziness is what they crave, and those fans will have a field day with this wacky and admittedly unsettling offering. Technical merits are first rate for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.