Kinds of Kindness (2024)

The critic calls it peak Lanthimos, an intensely icy immersion into psychological dystopias exploring choice, control, and submission through three linked stories that build cumulatively in darkness and absurdity, with strong performances and thematic cohesion.

The film is a stripped-down, humane and highly accomplished triptych that returns Lanthimos to the tone of his earlier work. It features strong performances, particularly from Plemons and Stone, and a wild, challenging world of brutal interpersonal dynamics.

The critic calls it a salacious triptych exploring psychological prisons and extreme power dynamics through blackly comic set-pieces. They praise the sophisticated register, strong ensemble cast and how all three parts work effectively as an anthology.

The critic calls the macabre, mischievous triptych mind-bendingly brilliant, praising the ensemble’s range in bizarre scenarios and the fun of its mind games and cosmic jokes, while noting it rewards a second viewing.

The critic welcomes the return to Lanthimos's signature spectacles of degradation and abasement in three interconnected stories of control and the search for the divine, praising the director's delight in absurdity and the matter-of-fact style that highlights the cruelty and randomness of life.

Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons shine in these intelligent and darkly funny tales of control, identity and human behaviour. The triptych lacks some of the director's earlier oddness but features strong acting, inventive storytelling and beautiful cinematography.

The critic describes an uneven but audacious triptych of stories that explores control, love, and faith through bizarre and disturbing events, praising the originality, vicious humor, and strong ensemble performances despite its length and strangeness.

The review portrays the film as a hostile anthology that feels like an allergic reaction to the director's recent success, focusing on psychosexual codependency and abasement across its three parts, with Jesse Plemons highlighted.

The critic finds Lanthimos on sly misanthropic form with a sombre darker triptych that recalls his earlier weird wave films. They single out the deadpan absurdity and black comic tone as challenging and inspired while noting its suffocating grip may limit appeal beyond dedicated fans.

The critic views the anthology as an interesting conceit with pure Lanthimos flavour and splendid visuals but one that does not pay off handsomely. They single out its opaque and baffling nature as making it a trying endurance test likely to alienate casual viewers.

The review criticizes the film as hamstrung by the director's pet interests, with crude sadism, glib humor, under-characterized figures, and a senseless fascination with violence that renders it over-determined and hard to watch, though it contains seeds of better ideas.

The review finds the film repetitive and self-admiring in its nastiness across three cruel fables about control and abjection. It singles out Plemons for the freshest performance while noting artistic fatigue overall.

Yorgos Lanthimos' hollow film feels like a test for audiences, lacking substance despite its structure. The Cannes screening highlights its experimental but ultimately empty qualities.

The portmanteau picture shows Lanthimos at both his best and worst, with riveting moments undercut by shallow shock tactics and self-satisfaction. Stone delivers strong work but the film ultimately feels cruel and lacking in genuine viewpoint.

The critic sees the film as forced weirdness from a director desperate to seem cool again, with slight and samey parables about yearning for approval. It complains of Lanthimos wriggling loose from expectations in drab modern skits.

The critic frames the film as Lanthimos adapting his bloodless style and fixations on authority and obedience to the form of Aesopian fables. The first chapter is singled out as the cleverest and most propulsive, while later segments feel repetitive and ultimately point to familiar observations about human compliance without deeper insight.

The critic describes the tricksy triptych as anything but tender, noting its outré and provocative qualities with grim humour but finding the deliberate affectlessness numbing over nearly three hours.

The critic sees Lanthimos returning to Greek Weird Wave roots with a profoundly puzzling and dark-hearted triptych that is discordantly amusing and exhilarating. They single out the intense writers/actors collaboration and stripped-back visual pleasure while noting its elliptical savage heart.

The critic describes the film as a chilling portmanteau of three dark social experiments featuring brilliant shapeshifting performances from the ensemble cast. They single out the wicked yarns on themes of tyrannical love and human cruelty for praise while noting some insights feel banal.

The critic finds the triptych admirable in its return to Lanthimos’s earlier surreal cruelty and control themes but notes that a unifying idea remains elusive and the film feels overlong, emotionally arid and a slog without the visual flair of his recent work.

The critic praises the film's defiantly off-putting stance and sick sense of humor in its triptych structure about domination. Plemons's performance stands out as particularly compelling amid the overlapping stories.

The review highlights sophisticated writing and perfect performances in the dark, ambitious absurdist triptych of tales featuring the returning cast.

The review calls it a mordant return to form with a biting power parody in a surrealistic triptych that keeps viewers squirming. It praises the unpredictable ensemble and deadpan parodies of control and consent.

The critic is impressed by the triptych exploring control and human condition, highlighting Jesse Plemons' performances across roles and the film's daring choices, calling it a compelling work that lingers in thought.

The film marks a return to Lanthimos's darker, weirder roots after more accessible recent works, with strong ensemble performances especially from Jesse Plemons across the anthology segments. It dissects toxic relationships and the search for meaning through the director's signature dark humor without compromise.

The critic sees it as the most Lanthimos film, a triple-hit of hierarchical anxiety with fascinating segments about control and madness, praising the cast but noting it's too long and doesn't cohere perfectly as a whole.

The critic highlights the film's singular, darkly comic exploration of control, love and cruelty across three stories, calling it rewarding for those who stick with it. Jesse Plemons' performance is singled out for particular praise as a career highlight.

The anthology of dark fables deliberately avoids likability or inspiration, focusing instead on twisted dynamics of devotion and control with a Twilight Zone-like tone. It echoes earlier Lanthimos films but feels distinct, with the cast shifting roles effectively across the three stories.

Lanthimos returns to a nastier, more transgressive mode reminiscent of his earlier work, exploring self-destructive devotion and power imbalances across three interconnected stories. The reteaming with co-writer Efthimis Filippou brings back an erotically macabre edge that feels less sunny than recent films.

The review describes the film as a restlessly provocative and freaky triptych that focuses on humanity's worst impulses through degradation and dark humour. It singles out the impressive ensemble, especially Plemons and Stone, as perfect co-conspirators in Lanthimos's chilly, singular vision.

The anthology feels like three distinct weird Lanthimos films in one, marking a hard turn back toward his earlier surrealist style after more mainstream successes. It plays with split identities and control through familiar actors in new configurations, emphasizing the director's bifurcated career paths.

The film signals Lanthimos's return to experimental roots with mixed results, presenting three stories that probe twisted forms of kindness and control through the same cast in shifting roles. While the surface shocks are effective, the work lacks deeper awe or substance beyond the actors' shape-shifting performances.

The review finds the film self-indulgent and overly focused on the director's own amusement at depraved scenarios, with the first story emerging as the strongest. It praises the performances, especially Plemons and Dafoe, but concludes the overall exercise lacks broader appeal.

The critic calls the film puzzling, brilliant and funny, yet not easy to like and the gloomiest Lanthimos work yet. She singles out the recurrent motifs of control, cruelty and erotomania across the three linked stories.

The critic finds it an uproariously entertaining triple-bill that returns Lanthimos to his roots with witty, crowd-pleasing stories disguised as experimental arthouse, praising the performances especially Jesse Plemons, though noting it may not satisfy as much on first watch as some previous works.

The critic finds the triptych seriously disturbed but thoroughly entertaining, marking a return to the director’s darker, creepier mode. He singles out the deadpan surrealism, gore, nudity and stilted rituals that make up the sampler-pack style.